What if Gine Went with Goku to Earth?
by meganechan720
Summary: A mother can't let go of her child so easily. What if Gine went with her son into hiding and stayed on Earth to raise him? An adaptation of the video series on MasakoX's youtube channel by the same name.
1. Escape to Earth

_A/N: I find MasakoX's storytelling to be really evocative, especially considering he is usually only summarizing or sketching out little scenes. It made me wonder what this story would be like all written out._

* * *

Gine was the only Saiyan who worked in the mess hall, and she (mostly) liked it that way. It was lonely, sometimes, since her coworkers gave her a wide berth and didn't say much to her, but in a lot of ways it was better than hanging out with other Saiyans, who barely treated her like she was the same species. Her weakness stood out less next to beings who didn't judge their worth in power levels.

She was preparing the meat for the next lunch rush when Bardock came in the kitchen, causing the other cooks to scatter in fear. Gine was so startled to see him here of all places that she sliced through the tip of her glove, although luckily she missed her finger. Bardock looked at the ruined glove with disdain, but instead of commenting on it, he met her eyes.

"I have something to tell you," he said. He looked unusually somber. Normally he was easy going, not too bothered by anything. It was one of the things that Gine had found attractive about him, but she had been as surprised as anyone when he had agreed to couple with her. She'd been even more surprised when he agreed to do it again. She doubted there would be a third time, though. The results of that coupling were currently in the nursery, and a disappointment to pretty much everyone except Gine herself.

"What is it?" she asked. Bardock looked uneasily around the kitchen. The cooks were all huddled in the back corner, some of them with dishes burning on the stove in their absence. He stepped closer to her and lowered his voice.

"Frieza is going to blow up the planet," he said. His meaning didn't immediately penetrate, and once it did Gine brought her hand up to her mouth in dismay.

"That's awful!" she said. "But why would he do that? The Saiyans are his best soldiers!"

Rather than answer her question, Bardock looked surprised.

"Are you saying you believe me?"

Gine nodded.

"You wouldn't lie about something like that," she said. A rare look of respect entered his eyes, and she treasured it, although it was hard to care about such things in the aftermath of news like that.

"If you really believe me, then you've got to get Kakarot off-planet before Frieza gets here. We don't have much time."

"What are you going to do?"

"Go fight him, obviously," Bardock said with a smirk. Gine couldn't help but answer it with a smile.

"What should I do after that?" she asked. The smirk settled back down into something more apathetic.

"Whatever you want," he said, shrugging. "As long as it's not totally useless I don't care."

The remark stung more than it might have normally, coming on the heels as it did of something almost like camaraderie between them. But this apathy towards her well-being was more his usual style, so Gine shrugged it off.

"Be careful," she said before he rushed off. He didn't even turn around to acknowledge her words.

Without another glance at her terrified coworkers, Gine stripped off her gloves and hurried out of the kitchen, rising up the maze-like passageways of the main complex to the nursery. Once she got there she quick-stepped down the rows until she found Kakarot, easy to spot due to his intense resemblance to Bardock. He was also easy to spot because he was bawling his lungs out, making the baby next to him squirm and cry in response, but once she picked him up he stopped. She couldn't help but smile at that, despite everything.

Years of being on the bottom of the Saiyan totem pole had taught Gine how to stay out of people's way and not attract attention, so she made it to the pod departure area undetected. It was empty, all outgoing missions having been temporarily suspended. She would have found that suspicious, except now she knew why. She found a pod with a destination already programmed in, a planet so weak it was practically a joke mission, which was doubtless why an infant was going to be sent there. She wondered if it was the very pod Kakarot had been destined for. She placed him inside and then stepped back, ready to engage the startup sequence.

Upon being set down Kakarot had resumed crying, and Gine found her hand hovering over the button to engage the pod, unable to press it. Foolishly, she had asked to be present when Raditz was sent off on his own infant mission. It was not normal behavior for a Saiyan mother to ask such a thing, and the strange looks from everyone present had made it even worse when she actually started to get emotional. Seeing Kakarot in a similar pod, under even worse circumstances, made her actually start to tear up.

A Saiyan infant sent out on a purging mission was always retrieved before they were too old to be reconditioned. Raditz had returned in a few months time, already bigger and more self-sufficient than when he left. But if Bardock was right, Kakarot would never be retrieved from this infant mission. If he was lucky he would be found by some Earthling and be raised as one of their own. More likely he would simply destroy every civilization on the planet and then…

Hot, fat tears begin to roll down Gine's face. Even if Kakarot did complete his mission and killed all the earthlings, he would still have plenty of non-sentient indigenous life-forms to keep him alive. But what kind of life would he lead? He would know only killing, and nothing more. At best he would live out his days as a feral creature, barely more intelligent than the animals he hunted, and at worst Frieza would find him and kill him like he was planning to do to the rest of them. It was very possible all Gine was doing was delaying the inevitable.

In his infantile rage Kakarot was now flailing his arms and crying even louder. Gine bent forward without thinking to try to comfort him, but before she could, he accidentally smacked the internal door button. Before she knew what was happening the door had lowered and pushed her into the pod with Kakarot, where she lay in a jumbled heap. She felt the engines begin to hum to life, but from her upside down position she had no leverage with which to hit the emergency stop button. It was all she could do to hold on to Kakarot as she felt them both begin to ascend into space.

She thought several times during the next few minutes of trying desperately to turn herself around and gain control of the craft, but every time she thought of going back down to that planet, only to have to get out of the pod again and send Kakarot on his way, she couldn't do it. Maybe it was better this way anyway. Bardock had told her not to do something useless. Well, maybe this counted, maybe it didn't. But as she snuggled closer to her son and let the stasis sleep take her, she didn't much care which one it was.


	2. Gohan and Gine

Every day in the early afternoon Son Gohan took a walk. It was partially for his constitution (prunes couldn't keep one regular on their own, after all), and partially because the life of a hermit could be rather boring sometimes. The natural scenery around Mount Paozu was unparalleled in all the world, and he felt lucky to be able to enjoy it whenever he wanted. Although this far into the mountains there were many wild creatures that could be dangerous to humans, he never worried. He had his walking stick and his martial arts training, and if he ran into something capable of taking out one of the star pupils of Master Roshi, then he figured he deserved whatever he got.

Today he decided to take the north path up to the waterfall, but as he approached the place he could sense that something was amiss. The birds were quiet or missing, and something had clearly spooked the wildlife. There was very little up here that was afraid of humans, and so normally on his walks he saw plenty of small animals that simply watched him curiously as he passed by. Today what few creatures were out and about at all scurried back into their hidey-holes the second they noticed him coming.

Soon he found the reason for all the trouble. About halfway up to the waterfall there was a break in the trees where normally there wasn't one, and as he got closer he could see a rather large crater in the ground that hadn't been there before. The air held the smell of ozone and freshly upturned earth. Something had happened recently, perhaps even early this morning before he had woken. Cautiously he approached the lip of the crater, making sure his feet were firmly planted on solid ground before sticking his head over the precipice. At the center of the crater was, not a large meteorite as he had been expecting, but some sort of vehicle or device. It didn't look like anything Gohan was familiar with, and the door was open.

Fearing that someone had been hurt Gohan slid gently down the side of the crater and over to the vehicle. He slowly peeked his head inside, and noticed two things right away. One, there was no one inside, meaning that whoever had occupied this vehicle had been at least well enough to leave it. Two, it was filled with more technology and wires and buttons than he knew what to do with. It was very possible that Capsule Corp. or some similar company had come up with inventions even more fantastical than the ones he was familiar with during his time in isolation, but he doubted it. There was something about this craft that was decidedly otherworldly.

Fearing perhaps that whoever had occupied the craft was nearby but too injured to call for help, Gohan reached out with his senses to try to see if he could find anyone. Before he could properly settle his mind, however, he heard a rustling in the bushes up above the crater. He looked up and saw what looked like a brown tail poking out of the bushes. There was a slight rustle as the tail was jerked back inside the cover of leaves, although not all the way. Curious, and a little amused, Gohan walked quietly closer to the bush and, using his walking stick, he gently poked the tail where it was still barely visible behind a scant cover of leaves.

Immediately the tail fuzzed-out: an expected reaction. What was unexpected, however, was the accompanying cry of a baby. Even more unexpected was the young girl that launched herself out of the bush with her fist raised, clearly intent on punching him. Gohan moved easily out of the way, and with nothing to take the force of her punch, the girl fell flat on her face on the ground. In an instant she had jumped back up and was looking around wildly. When she caught sight of Gohan her eyes widened with fear, and after staring at him for a moment, during which he did not move or do anything threatening, she turned tail and fled.

Turning tail was more accurate in this case than Gohan had ever known it to be. The tail that had first caught his notice seemed to belong to the baby in her arms, but as she turned around and leapt away he could see that the girl had a matching one. She moved fast, faster than Gohan had known most people could move other than himself and a few select others, and before very long she was gone, along with all evidence that she been there.

Gohan, not in the habit of borrowing trouble, looked back down at the pod at the center of the crater as though perhaps it could explain something. When nothing seemed to be forthcoming, he shrugged and turned around to go home.

* * *

As part of his daily routine, once his walk was finished Gohan fixed himself a hearty lunch. He usually didn't bother with breakfast, and dinner was usually simple foods. Lunch was his chance to go all out, and today, despite not having walked as far as usual, curiosity seemed to have done the work of increasing his appetite in the place of exercise.

The beans that had been soaking since the previous night now went into a pot over a nice fire, along with fresh vegetables from his garden and a little bit of preserved fish. He got out the last of the jerky and opened up a new jar of pickled eggs. Once the oven was hot enough he took the dough that had been rising all morning and put it inside. Before long the smells of baking bread and piping hot soup filled the tiny hut, and Gohan, although not as consumed by his bodily appetites as he had once been, could admit that here was a meal worth eating.

Right as he was sitting down ready to eat, however, the door burst open hard enough that it rocked off its hinges and fell to the floor. Standing in the doorway, eyes wide and crazed, was the young girl from earlier. Gohan could do nothing but stare as she looked wildly around the hut. Her eyes fell on Gohan and she took a step forward threateningly.

"Where's the food!" she shouted. Gohan noticed the baby in her arms, which took an opportunity to let out an especially loud yell. Realizing the person that had busted down his door and was demanding his food was holding a baby softened her crazed demeanor in Gohan's eyes from serial killer to frazzled mother.

"Please, come in, sit down, have some food," Gohan said, as though it were normal for his guests to burst in uninvited. "You must be starving."

As the girl moved cautiously into the room and slowly sat down, looking as though she were ready to flee at a moment's notice, curiosity welled up inside Gohan yet again. She was certainly wearing strange clothing. It was possible that changing fashions in the city had resulted in what looked like some kind of armor, but somehow he doubted it. The pod and the crater, not to mention the tails, all pointed to there being a story here, and a very strange one.

The babe in arms was crying even louder now, though, and the girl was staring at the table with unfocused eyes, so Gohan put his questions to the back of his mind and gestured to the food.

There was no hesitation. Before Gohan was even aware of what was happening, half the food was already gone. All the jerky in practically one bite, and half the loaf of bread in another. The girl paused for breath and to hand the baby some of the pickled eggs, which it tore into with as much ravenous enthusiasm as its mother. Then she was back at it, gulping down a bowl of soup and asking for another before Gohan had even managed to put the ladle back in the pot.

Once every scrap of his lunch was totally gone, minus one small bowl of soup Gohan had managed to smuggle into his gullet before his guest could notice, the baby fell asleep with his head cradled comfortably against his mother's shoulder.

"Now, my dear," Gohan said kindly, "why don't you tell me what you're doing out here. You've obviously been through a lot. Are you in some kind of trouble?"

Gohan did not miss the way the young mother's hand curled a little tighter around her child's back protectively. She looked down at the wood grain table and seemed to think for a moment. Then she looked back up and met Gohan's eyes.

"I suppose there's no reason not to tell you the full story," she said. "But I don't know if you'll believe me."

Gohan smiled. He stood and began gathering the tea things.

"Why don't I fix you a cuppa, and you tell me the whole story, and I'll be the judge of that."

Over two cups of piping hot tea the girl began to relate a tale as strange as Gohan had ever heard, a tale of space emperors and planetary genocide, of space travel and revenge and legendary warriors, of a mother trying to protect her child while mourning for another child and a man that was only something like a husband. By the end of it Gohan had only one question.

"But you're not here to do that to Earth, are you?"

Gine shook her head vehemently.

"We're just here to get away from Frieza," she said. "I didn't really have a plan after that, but I have no interest in purging planets. I'm… I'm not much like other Saiyans," she admitted, stroking Kakarot's hair pensively. "I'm weak, and I don't like bloodshed. Kakarot is weak too, so he probably takes after me. I suppose… we might end up just living here. We have nowhere else to go." She looked back up at Gohan with a wry smile on her face. "Do you think I could pass as an Earthling?"

"Absolutely, my dear," Gohan said. "Why, there's nothing strange about you except your clothes, which are easily fixed, and that tail. Even that's just a bit unusual. If I didn't know better I'd say you were a normal Earth woman."

"A normal Earth woman," Gine repeated softly. "That doesn't sound half bad."

"While you're getting your bearings, why don't you stay here? It's out of the way, quiet. The accommodations are a little small, but I certainly wouldn't mind some company for a while."

"And the food is to die for," Gine added with a grin. "If you really don't mind, I might just take you up on that."

Gohan did not mind. But that night he got a bit of a nasty shock. As he was gathering up his bed roll, content to sleep in the woodshed while Gine and the baby took the bed, Gine turned to him suddenly.

"I just remembered something," she said. "It won't be a problem with me, but don't let little Kakarot ever look at the full moon."

Gohan stood up slowly, amazed.

"Why ever not?" he asked incredulously. Gine looked almost ashamed.

"Whenever a Saiyan looks at a full moon, they take on their Oozaru form. I suppose to you it would look like a giant ape. A child as young as Kakarot won't be able to control the form, and he would almost certainly kill you."

"My goodness," Gohan breathed. "You Saiyans seem to be full of surprises. I will certainly keep that in mind." He moved to turn away, and then thought of something and turned back. "Is it only if they look directly at the full moon?"

Gine nodded.

"Even half moon or an almost full moon won't do."

"I wonder…" Gohan muttered to himself as he rummaged through the cabinet in the back wall. Eventually he emerged with a pair of sunglasses. "If he were wearing these, would that prevent the transformation?"

Gine took the unfamiliar object and inspected it. Gohan took it from her and placed it on her face. She smiled when she realized what it was.

"Oh, I see. It reduces the amount of light your eyes receive. Yes, that would do just fine."

She took the glasses off and turned them around, placing them on Kakarot's face. The glasses were comically oversized, and she laughed. Kakarot, aware only that his mother was laughing, giggled in response, which only made her laugh harder. Soon the two of them were laughing uproariously, with Gohan looking on, a fond smile on his face. If Gine did not bring up leaving to go somewhere else, he wouldn't bring it up either. Having such smiles and laughter around the hermitage would certainly make it less lonely, if a little less like a hermitage.


	3. To Settle One's Soul

The next day Gohan made one of his rare trips into town. Gine stayed behind to fix the door.

"I can't guarantee much," she said, holding the hammer awkwardly. "But I'll try to follow your instructions as best I can."

"Whatever you do will be fine," Gohan said. "If you really can't figure it out, go ahead and leave it for me when I get back."

"But I've got to fix it. I'm the one that broke it, after all," she said earnestly. "If it's not fixed by the time you get back, I'll… I'll…"

"You'll let me help you finish it," Gohan said kindly, before she could threaten to do something desperate. "I appreciate the gesture, but there's no need for you to go to such great lengths. Honestly, I'm a little less worried about the door and more worried about how you two are going to feed yourselves. How much does a warrior know about cooking, anyway?"

"Oh, don't worry about that," Gine said dismissively, waving her hand in the air. "Cooking is one of the few things I'm actually good at. It was my job back on planet Vegeta. I suppose it's probably gone by now…"

A harrowed look came over her face, and she stared at the hammer in her hand without truly seeing it. Gohan patted her arm. She met his eyes and he gave her a comforting look. He hoped it was enough. There really wasn't anything he could say.

When Gohan returned two days later he found a roughshod door badly fitted in his doorway, young Kakarot sitting in the yard wearing one of his shirts like an oversized dress, crying his eyes out, and Gine outside taking her frustrations out on a block of wood. When she saw Gohan coming she dropped the wood and ran to him.

"I'm so sorry," she wailed, "I almost burned your house down and the door doesn't actually open, you have to take the board down in order to get in and out, and Kakarot soiled all of your clothes except that shirt and I don't know where the clothes washing facilities are."

Gohan chuckled, setting down the heavy pack full of fabric for new clothes for Gine and Kakarot along with other supplies.

"First things first," he said. "When you say you _didn't_ burn the house down, how not burned are we talking?"

It turned out: not very. The ceiling was a little blackened and the pot she had been using would never be the same, but it was nothing that wasn't easily fixed. While Gohan taught Gine the finer points of washing clothes by hand, Kakarot played with the fabric he had bought, his impulse to tear it apart with his teeth quickly corrected by his mother.

"This is for wearing, not eating, Kakarot," she scolded, draping the cloth around herself. "Like this."

Clumsily the little boy attempted to pull a sheet of fabric around him in the same manner as his mother, but only succeeded in pulling it over his head entirely. Gine laughed, and Gohan was relieved to see that the sorrow and heaviness he had left her with had already begun to lift. Dinner that night was delicious, courtesy of Gine. She had been unused to an open wood fire for cooking complex dishes, but once Gohan gave her some tips, she was able to make a very serviceable stew.

"Don't you humans have stoves and things like that?" Gine asked as she watched the fire carefully and adjusted for hot spots as Gohan had instructed. "The info dump made it seem like you're practically ready for space travel."

"Info dump?" Gohan asked, pulling his needle through the sleeve of the garment he was working on. "What is that?"

"It's just this thing that gives us all the knowledge we need while we're traveling to another planet," Gine said distractedly. Gohan blinked, impressed.

"That's amazing. I'm almost positive we don't have technology like that here on Earth. But to answer your earlier question, yes, we do have stoves and hover cars and washing machines. I simply choose to live a simpler life."

"But why?" Gine asked, sprinkling on the spices and giving the stew a taste. "Why give up technology if you have it? No offense, but you humans already seem a bit primitive to me, why go even more primitive?"

"A fair question," Gohan said, holding up his work to inspect the seam. Kakarot was gnawing on a chew toy Gohan had gotten him in town, but he had nearly bitten clean through it, so Gohan was already trying to think of other things he could stick in that ravenous mouth to keep him from inflicting real property damage. "There are plenty of humans that wouldn't understand my lifestyle either. As a martial arts master I have decided to give up worldly pursuits and cares in the interest of clearing my mind and allowing my spirit to be free."

"A martial arts master?" Gine repeated, turning around to look at him incredulously. "You're a fighter? I had no idea."

"True, I don't look it. I'm full of surprises, actually. I used to be quite handsome in my younger days, too."

Gine laughed and turned back to the soup.

"If you'd like, I would love to spar with you later," she said, giving the soup another taste.

"I thought you said you didn't like fighting," Gohan pointed out, starting on the hem.

"I don't like being forced to go around just killing things on someone else's orders," Gine said bitingly, "but I'm still a Saiyan. Fighting is in our blood. I would just rather do it for fun."

"Hmmm," was all Gohan replied. While Gine set the table, he tried the little shirt he had been making on Kakarot. The boy squirmed and tried to bite him, but at a sharp word from his mother he stilled, and Gohan pulled the shirt over his head. Gohan still didn't quite believe this child was only a few days old. He was already practically walking. The shirt fit fine, and once Kakarot realized Gohan had been trying to dress him, not tie him up or eat him, the little boy smoothed his hands down the blue fabric over and over again, clearly fascinated. When Gine caught sight of him, she gave him a smile.

"You look very nice, Kakarot," she said. "Tell Grandpa Gohan thank you."

Kakarot turned to Gohan and babbled unintelligibly. Gohan decided to take it as an expression of gratitude, though it was impossible to tell.

"'Grandpa' Gohan," he mused. "I like the sound of that."

* * *

As the days and weeks and months went by, the three of them began to integrate into each other's lives seamlessly. Gine put her armor away and wore the clothes Gohan made for her. She cooked and cleaned and hunted, and both of them quietly did not mention the possibility of her leaving.

When all the chores were done and Gohan was in the mood they sparred. Gine had to go easy on him, of course, but quite a bit less easy than she'd been anticipating, considering the average power level of this planet. Sometimes she almost wished for a scouter so she could read his power level. It was so hard to tell. Sometimes she would lightly tap him and he'd go flying, but then other times he would move her limbs in such a way that she ended up on the ground without hardly knowing how she got in there.

"If you're anything to go by, Gohan said, after one of these sparring sessions, "it's clear the Saiyans rely more on brute force than they do on technique. You're pretty formidable as you are, but if I were to teach you you would be truly something else."

Gine, who had never been called formidable in her life, looked away, pensive.

"I don't know," she said. "I think I like the idea of leaving the killing life behind."

"Who said anything about killing?" Gohan scolded. "What I'm talking about is the martial arts. They're used for peace and self-defense. They can also be used for self-improvement and to settle one's own soul. Killing doesn't even have to enter the equation."

"Settle one's soul?" Gine rolled those words around in her mouth like she enjoyed the taste of them. "That I could handle."

Thus it was decided. The sparring sessions turned into teaching sessions, and when Kakarot was old enough he joined them.

One night after a bedtime story, Kakarot lay drowsing, and Gine was nearly asleep herself when he spoke.

"Mama? Do I have a papa?"

The story had been about a mother and a father, and the realization that she was about to have _that_ conversation gave Gine an adrenaline rush that woke her right up.

"You did. He's dead now." Gine sometimes surprised Gohan with her bluntness in talking to Kakarot about such unsavory concepts, but she saw no reason to hide reality from him, and though she wanted to live as an Earthling, secretly she thought some of their social mores were a little silly. Just because someone was a child didn't mean they were exempt from death or violence.

Kakarot digested that.

"What was he like?" was his next question. Gine thought about how to answer.

Distantly apathetic, if she wanted to answer candidly. Quiet, for a Saiyan, but not above boasting. Strong, but not power hungry. He was the type of man who saw to his own needs and pleasures and didn't seem to care about anyone else's. She knew, from comments she had overheard from his teammates in the mess hall, that he probably did care about them in his own way, but if those feelings extended to her she had never seen evidence of it. Their first coupling had been motivated by boredom and availability on his part, and something like hero worship on hers. The second time had been much the same. The fact that he had never coupled with anyone else had given her hope for a long time that his feelings for her were special, but she could see now with the perspective distance gives that Bardock was not the kind of man to do something that sentimental. He had coupled with her and no one else because that's what he'd felt like doing, plain and simple. Her feelings had not entered into the equation one bit.

"He looked exactly like you," she said to Kakarot. "Except he had a scar on his cheek, like this."

She traced an X on Kakarot's left cheek, the ticklish sensation making him giggle softly.

"Was he strong?" he asked, his voice a quiet murmur as he drifted further and further into sleep.

"Yes," Gine said.

"Stronger than Grandpa Gohan?"

She laughed, a small exhale through her nose.

"Yes, even stronger than Grandpa Gohan."

"Wow," Kakarot breathed, his eyes closed. Gine wondered if he would even remember this conversation later. "Do you think I'll be... as strong as him?"

"My dear, you'll be even stronger," Gine whispered. Kakarot began to snore, and Gine lay awake for a long time that night.


	4. Bulma and the Dragon Balls

"Alright, Ma, I'm done choppin' the wood. I'm gonna go get us some dinner now."

Gine looked up to find Kakarot already waving to her as he walked down the path to the woods.

"Get fish this time!" she called after him. "I know you like tiger, but that's all we've had for the last three nights."

He gave her an extra enthusiastic wave in acknowledgement, and then he was off. Gine sighed fondly and sat back on her heels, taking a break from weeding the garden to look up at the sky. It was a beautiful day, the sky a deep blue padded with puffy white clouds and, from her perspective, ringed by the lush branches of deep green trees. The weather was pleasantly warm without being too hot, her son was growing into a fine young man, and the deer seemed to have finally gotten the message not to mess with her rhubarb. Gine gave another sigh and closed her eyes in bliss.

"What's all this sighing for?" Gohan teased, coming up behind her. She smiled and opened her eyes.

"Nothing," she said. "Or at least, nothing's wrong. I was just thinking that there isn't a single thing I could wish for that would make me any happier than I am right now."

Gohan's eyes crinkled as his face folded into a wide smile.

"I can't tell you how happy I am to hear that," he said. "Although, I will point out that this particular bout of contentment seems to have come immediately after Kakarot has just left to go hunting."

Gine chuckled in acknowledgement.

"You might have something there," she said. "Don't get me wrong, I love having him here. But he's getting old enough that he's a little… trying... on a mother's nerves. In Saiyan society he would have already left home by now."

"But you tell me he's years away from becoming an adult," Gohan said, setting down the basket of potatoes he was carrying and easing himself down on a nearby bench. Gine slowly pulled off her gloves and sat down cross-legged.

"Well, yes, in a manner of speaking that's true. It's more like he's years away from bearing age. Well, in his case, siring age. But he's certainly old enough to be living on his own. He has been for years."

Gohan shook his head slowly.

"It never fails to amaze me how different Saiyans are from humans."

"Were," Gine corrected gently. "There are no Saiyans anymore." Then, before the mood could turn somber, she continued, "I've already decided that if Kakarot doesn't want to leave I won't force the issue until he hits his adult growth spurt. At that point he's going to have to leave whether he wants to or not, for the sake of all our sanities."

Gohan chuckled. The wind turned, rustling the trees, and Gine stood up suddenly, sniffing the air.

"Someone's coming," she said. Gohan stood more sedately, looking in the same direction as Gine.

"Indeed," he said calmly. "I'll go put these in the store house while you greet our guest."

He did so without giving Gine time to protest. Standing absolutely still, she watched the path to the house carefully. After a moment, Kakarot could be seen skipping along, carrying a large fish. At least it wasn't tiger, Gine thought. But there was a scent on the air that was neither Kakarot nor fish. He turned around a bend in the path and revealed another figure: a human girl. That explained the scent. But it did not explain the vague unease Gine felt. This girl was hardly a threat to her physical safety. Perhaps it was nerves? Gohan was the only human she had ever met, and now she was about to meet another one whether she was ready for it or not.

"That's my ma!" Kakarot announced, the two of them having come close enough to be within earshot. "Look, ma, it's a human girl!" he shouted across the yard. The unease gave way to a mother's instinct to correct her son's manners.

"I can see that, Kakarot," she said, walking closer. "There's no need to shout. It's nice to meet you," she said to the girl, giving her a bow. "My name is Gine. What brings you all the way out here?"

Closer up, Gine could see that the girl was very young, possibly almost as young as Kakarot. She clearly thought her clothes were suitable for adventuring, but if she really intended on dressing like that out in these woods she was going to get eaten alive by mosquitoes and scratched up by brambles in no time. Nerves battled with motherly concern. The girl gave a bow in return, looking bewildered.

"My name is Bulma," she said, and then seemed to shake off her surprise. "And I'm out here looking for something." She reached into a pouch at her waist, and pulled out a small orange orb. "You wouldn't happen to have seen one of these, would you?"

Gine studied the orb in amazement.

"Kakarot, doesn't that look like that thing Grandpa Gohan has?"

"Yeah, you're right," Kakarot said, studying the orb with equal fascination. "I didn't know there were more of them."

"There are seven in total," Bulma announced, clearly feeling pleased about knowing something they didn't. "I've got two so far. Can you show me the one you have?"

"I suppose so…" Gine said slowly, but her hesitation was lost on Kakarot, who was already leading Bulma into the house. She took in a deep, steadying breath, reminding herself that Gohan hadn't seemed the least bit concerned. It was just a human child looking for some pretty jewels. There was no good reason to feel as jumpy as she did. Still, a little caution never hurt anybody. She followed them into the house.

"... And if you gather all seven, supposedly you get a wish from a magical dragon!" Bulma was explaining to Gohan and Kakarot.

"And what is it you're going to wish for?" Gohan asked. Bulma smiled brightly at him.

"A lifetime supply of strawberries!"

Gine was a little appalled. There was no way that was the truth, except she didn't seem to be lying.

"You must really like strawberries," Gine said, moving further into the house and getting the tea things ready.

"Nothing better!" Bulma agreed. "They're a little hard to get in the city. Most of the year the only ones you can find are shriveled up and sour. But there's just nothing better in the whole world than a sweet, plump strawberry freshly-picked."

"I would have to agree with you there," Gohan said, chuckling. He noticed Gine moving in such a way to keep Bulma her line of sight at all times, and gave her an indulgent smile that she ignored. "And our cut would be, what, a bushel of strawberries sent up here yearly?"

"Naturally!" Bulma agreed with a chuckle. Gine realized the wish hadn't been a lie, it had merely been flippant. She didn't really believe in the legend, she was just a spoiled city girl out for a little fun. Feeling contrite about having been so suspicious, she forced her eyes off the girl, and that was how she noticed Kakarot staring at her, hanging on Bulma's every word. Seeing this sparked an idea in her brain, and she sat down at the table with the rest of them while the tea steeped.

"Are you out here all by yourself, Bulma?" she asked. Bulma nodded. "Isn't that dangerous?"

"Oh, I'm fine. I've got my pistol and a bunch of vehicle capsules. Speaking of which, I've been meaning to ask you, Kakarot here says he's an alien. Normally I wouldn't buy into that kind of silly talk, but he totally flipped over my car with his bare hands!"

Gine forced herself to stay calm. She had never told Kakarot not to tell anyone they were from another planet, but Gohan had not been able to make any predictions about how people would react, and there was always the possibility the reaction would be negative. Bulma was looking at her expectantly, clearly ready to hear some kind of explanation that did not involve extraterrestrials.

"It's true," Gine said. "We came here when Kakarot was a baby. Our planet was destroyed and we had nowhere else to go."

Bulma digested this, looking back and forth between Gine and Kakarot, waiting for someone to announce they were pulling her leg. No one did.

"I… guess that would explain the tails," she said eventually. And that seemed to be it. Gine was pretty sure she didn't believe them, but that was better than mass hysteria. Gohan stood up.

"Let me see if I can't find my, er, what is it called? Dragon ball?"

He went to the cupboard where he kept his knick-knacks and a small collection of books, and pulled out the orb. Kakarot had played with it sometimes as a baby, but no matter how hard he chomped down on it, he had never left any teeth marks. Bulma's eyes widened as she saw it, all talk of aliens apparently forgotten.

"That's it! That's the four star ball!"

Gohan set it on the table, and Bulma pulled out her two and set them next to it. They all stared in wonder for a moment.

"Well, young lady, I see no reason why you shouldn't have this trinket," Gohan said. "I will put one condition on it, however."

"And what would that be?" Bulma asked suspiciously, clearly unwilling to blindly agree to anything. Gohan smiled.

"If you do manage to find all seven, and a magical dragon really does appear, just come back and tell me about it. I would love to know if the legend was true."

"You have yourself a deal," Bulma said grinning, and she and Gohan shook on it.

"I have a proposal," Gine said. "Why don't you take Kakarot with you on your journey? He knows these woods as well as anyone. He could be your guide."

She was much more interested in Kakarot keeping the poor girl from getting killed or eaten, but it was clear she had her pride and also a very stunted understanding of how dangerous the wilds could be. (There was also the added benefit of getting the boy out of her hair for a while, but she could pretend it was mostly altruism.) Bulma looked thoughtful at the offer, but Kakarot nearly leaped out of his seat.

"Can I? Can I come? I would love to go on an adventure! It'll be so exciting!"

Bulma laughed.

"I guess if you're that enthusiastic how can I say no? And you're clearly strong enough to be useful. Just no more flipping over cars, okay? I only have so many of those."

"Deal!" Kakarot shouted, extending his hand for her to shake as well. She did, and then winced as he squeezed too hard.

"Watch it, kid, I'm a delicate female who requires special handling! We're going to have to set some ground rules, I can already tell."

"Sorry!" Kakarot sang. "I forgot how weak you humans are!"

Bulma made a face.

"I'm going to be generous and not take offense to that," she said.

"Thanks!" Kakarot said, oblivious to her sarcasm.

Gine was ecstatic they were already getting along so well.

* * *

She was a lot less ecstatic later that night when she realized cutting the apron strings would more difficult for the mother than for the child.

"But what if he hurts someone?" she said, biting her knuckle as she paced around the cabin. "He still has trouble controlling his Oozaru form. What if he forgets himself and looks at the full moon? We didn't even tell Bulma to worry about that!"

Gohan laughed at her.

"You're worrying over nothing, my dear. Kakarot is a practical child, in his own way. You've drilled the importance of not looking at the full moon into his head well enough."

"But he's stronger than humans! What if he forgets himself and just hurts someone on accident?"

"And what if the moon was made of green cheese?" Gohan snapped. Gine looked up at him, startled. He didn't seem angry, but he did seem stern. When he saw she had stopped pacing and he had her full attention, he continued.

"You need to trust your son. Didn't you tell me yourself he's old enough to be living on his own? That includes controlling himself well enough not to hurt people. He'll be fine. You did a fine job raising him, and now the rest is up to him."

Gine hesitated, and then sagged slightly as she let her tension out in a slow breath. She gave Gohan an apologetic smile and sat down at the table across from him.

"You're right, of course," she said. "It's just that I can't help but worry. Is this what it's like to be a human?"

Gohan chuckled.

"I think this is what it is to be a mother," he said.

* * *

Many weeks later, as Gine was hanging the laundry up to dry, she heard a strange noise in the air and looked up to find a yellow cloud swooping down out of the sky. Before she could do more than set down her basket of sheets, Kakarot leaped off the cloud and jumped into her arms. There was a happy cacophony of greeting and yelling as they hugged and Kakarot tried to explain every part of his adventure at once, and Gine tried to get him to slow down and simultaneously call Gohan from where he was in the house. Eventually they managed to get Kakarot inside and fed, where he related the story in a jumble of names and non sequiturs. One name in particular jumped out at Gohan.

"Oh, you met good old Ox King, did you?"

"Yeah! Is it true you really trained with him under Master Roshi?"

"I sure did. How's the old boy doing these days?"

"He was a warlord and had a mountain full of treasure but Master Roshi told him not to be bad anymore so he won't and he has a daughter named Chi Chi and he's single, mom."

Kakarot fixed her with a wide-eyed, innocent stare, his verbal torrent abruptly coming to a stop as he waited for her to respond. It took a moment for the last part to sink in, and when it did Gine blushed and fidgeted with her teacup.

"Thank you for that, Kakarot," she said, ignoring Gohan's amused grin. He rescued her a moment later by asking Kakarot if the Dragon Balls had turned out to really grant wishes.

"Yeah, they really do! I didn't see it, but they said there was a big dragon that shot up into the sky!"

"What did you end up wishing for?"

"Panties."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Panties. Oolong wished for panties. I don't know why, I think he already had underwear of his own."

Gohan muttered something about another Roshi, but Gine turned to Kakarot and asked,

"Why didn't you see the dragon, son?"

Immediately Kakarot wilted, staring down at the table top, looking ashamed.

"I had to go Oozaru," he admitted. "We were trapped in a dungeon and it was the only way to get out. They, um, cut off my tail because I couldn't control it."

He looked so ashamed and so forlorn that Gine could do nothing but get out of her chair and kneel down next to his, putting her arms around him. He buried his face in her shoulder.

"I'm not angry, Kakarot," she assured him. "No one was hurt, right? So don't worry about it. Just make sure to be careful next time, okay?"

Kakarot nodded. Almost immediately he brightened and sat up.

"Master Roshi said I can train with him if I want to. Can I, ma? Can I?"

"Who's Roshi again?" she said, recognizing the name but not where it had come in Kakarot's haphazard story.

"Why, that's my old master!" Gohan said. "If anyone can teach the boy, it's him."

"You want to keep learning the martial arts?" Gine asked her son carefully. Kakarot nodded enthusiastically.

"I really like fighting! I didn't know it was so much fun! Especially when you're fighting a bad guy and you don't have to hold back!"

Gine took in a deep, steadying breath. She had promised herself, long ago when Kakarot was small, that if he wanted to follow his Saiyan heritage and become a fighter she wouldn't stand in his way. The only thing she would put her foot down about was senseless killing, but it sounded like Kakarot wasn't interested in that at all.

"If that's what you want," Gine said.

"Yeah! I'll make you proud, ma!"

Gine smiled fondly.

"I know you will, my son," she said.


	5. Krillin and Kakarot

It was a lovely tournament, right up until Krillin's death.

Gine had reluctantly allowed her son to talk her into going to watch him this time. A few hours before the tournament was to start he turned up wearing nothing but a tiger skin and a bright grin. He had gained a few inches and quite a bit of muscle in the time since she had last seen him, and his usual whirlwind of activity and hurried stories had somehow ended up with her and Gohan perched behind him on the nimbus.

"Master Roshi said I was supposed to go all around the world without using nimbus so I could train, but I think we'll prob'ly be late if we don't use it since you guys are too slow," he explained apologetically. Gine and Gohan shared an amused grimace at this, and didn't bother correcting him.

Once they arrived and Kakarot had made rushed introductions, Gine spent a very pleasant few minutes getting to know people she had only ever heard about in stories, as well as getting reacquainted with Bulma. She and Gohan agreed to cover for Roshi as he went to disguise himself as Jackie Chun, and they all settled in to enjoy the tournament.

The sheer variety of people she encountered in those brief hours astonished her. The info dump had not done this planet any justice. There was magic here, and psychic abilities, as well as far more strength than the average power level hinted at. Even so, humans were still humans. Bulma buried her face in Gine's shoulder upon seeing her boyfriend's leg broken, and it had actually taken Gine a few minutes to realize she was upset because of the injury, not because of the loss. Watching Tien turn away from the dark path of his master nearly brought her to tears, because it seemed as though while humans knew almost as much of brutality as Saiyans, it was also abundantly clear that they knew much more about change and forgiveness.

By the time the tournament was over, Gine was exhausted. The intense succession of victories and defeats, as well as the sheer noise and mass of humanity after years of isolation, had taken its toll on her. Although she was glad she had come, she would be equally glad to return to her peaceful mountain home- once dinner was over, of course.

As they made dinner plans, teasing Tien about his unknowingly foolhardy offer to feed two Saiyans, a cry rang out over the deserted tournament grounds, a sound that brought Gine straight back to her brief time serving in the combat corps. It was a sound unmistakable to anyone who had ever heard it before: the death cry of someone being brutally slaughtered.

"That's Krillin!" Kakarot cried, running toward the sound. Gine's heart leapt into her throat as she followed him. Krillin was Kakarot's best friend, someone he had described to her often on his sporadic visits throughout the years. She had been delighted to meet him, and impressed at his strength during his fight with her son. She prayed she had been wrong about the nature of the sound.

Everyone gathered in the back room of the tournament grounds, and it became clear immediately that Gine had not been mistaken. Kakarot was cradling Krillin's head in his arms, his tail bristling. The tournament announcer, injured and lying on the ground next to Krillin, babbled something about a monster having stolen a dragon ball and the tournament roster, but Gine was watching her son, his shoulders now shaking.

"Krillin's... dead," he murmured, his voice low and tight with shock. Gine realized this was the first time someone close to him had died, and her heart constricted in anguish for him. On Vegeta, this moment would likely have come much earlier in his life. Here on Earth, she had secretly been hoping it would never arrive.

Kakarot stood up suddenly, growling deep in his throat. He grabbed his staff and turned to Bulma, eyes burning with rage.

"Bulma! Do you have the dragon radar?" he demanded.

Still in shock, all Bulma could do was pull the radar out of her pocket. Kakarot snatched it out of her grasp and ran out of the room. Roshi yelled for him to stop, but this shook Gine from her reverie and she turned to him.

"Kakarot will be fine," she said. Roshi looked at her incredulously.

"Are you insane? That thing took out Krillin! And Kakarot is coming off an exhausting tournament. He's going to get himself killed!"

"Hey, what's this thing?" Oolong said before Gine could reply, holding up a piece of paper. Bulma read it aloud.

"It's the character 'ma'… demon or sorcery, in a circle."

Roshi's face went white, and he turned quickly, snatching the paper out of their grasp. He stared at it, haunted and trembling.

"Do you know what this is?" Yamcha asked. Roshi looked up and met Gohan's eyes.

"This is the seal… of the great Demon King Piccolo," he said. Upon hearing this Gohan's face went as white as his master's.

"You don't mean the one that claimed the life of your Master Mutaito?"

"The very same," Roshi said.

"I've heard that name," Tien said. "He was a lord of demons said to have plunged the world into darkness many centuries ago. He was intent on killing every living thing in a reign of terror, but then he disappeared. No one seems to know what happened to him. Why is he here now?"

"He shouldn't be," Roshi said. "My master sealed him away. He gave his own life to do it, and I buried the vessel on the ocean floor, never telling anyone where it was. I have no idea how Piccolo could have freed himself from that imprisonment."

"You mean you're saying Kakarot's gone off to fight a demon that almost destroyed the world?" Yamcha asked, horrified.

"The little fool," Roshi muttered, shaking his head. "If only I could have stopped him. All we can do now is pray."

"Keep your prayers," Gine said harshly. They were all acting like Kakarot was facing certain death. "It's his right to try to avenge his friend."

"Are you saying you're not even worried about him?" Tien demanded incredulously. "It was one thing when you were watching the tournament and didn't bat an eye even though your son was fighting for his life. But now to allow him to run off after a known monster that has already killed without even a shred of concern? Don't you care about your son at all?"

Gine strode over to Tien and gathered up his collar in her fist, pulling his head down to her height. She pierced his gaze with her own, and, just for once in her life, reveled in the fact that she could blast this human into dust without even trying. Decades of being the weakest, of having to put up with horrible treatment just because she couldn't fight back, and then years of holding herself in, pulling her punches with Gohan because she didn't want to hurt him, all welled up in a rush of anger and frustration and she let herself imagine, just for a moment, grinding this puny human's stupid face in until his brain squished out the other side of his skull. She was stronger than him by a large margin and she knew it, and in that moment, she could see that he knew it too. She released him.

"Kakarot and I are Saiyans," she said, as Tien looked at her in surprise and not a little horror. "We came here from another planet, the last two surviving members of a strong warrior race. My son will not be so easily killed, and neither will I. He will avenge his friend's death, and I will find this Demon King Piccolo and I will kill him. I will not let him bring my adopted home world to ruin."

They were all staring at her now, everyone but Gohan seeming to realize for the first time that Kakarot had to have gotten his strength from somewhere. She cleared her throat and smoothed her hands down the front of her dress unnecessarily, then turned to address Bulma.

"If the monster took the dragon ball then they must be looking for the others as well. Was the dragon radar you gave Kakarot the only one you have?"

Bulma stared at her slack-jawed for another few seconds, but then she shook herself and dashed the tears from her eyes.

"Yes, but I can make another one in about half a day."

"Would you start working on that, please?" Gine asked politely. She didn't want her outburst to make them think differently of her. "If we go looking for the dragon balls ourselves, then eventually we run into the Demon King."

"A fine plan, assuming you're strong enough to stand up to him," Roshi said sarcastically. "You don't know how powerful the Demon King is. My Master Mutaito was many times stronger than I am now, and even he was no match for him."

"Begging your pardon, master," Gohan interjected, "I don't think you need to worry about Gine here. If, as I suspect, my dear, you've been holding back on me all this time, you should stand a good chance of beating even him."

Gine blushed, and nodded. Gohan chuckled.

"I thought so."

"I'm afraid I can't just take your word on this, Gohan," Roshi said, taking off his hat. "My dear, if you really are as strong as all that, then you should be able to defeat me easily. Will you face me in battle?"

"Are you idiots really going to fight over nothing when Krillin's laying here dead and Kakarot might be off dying too?" Bulma shouted, and then burst into tears. Yamcha put an arm around her comfortingly and led her out of the room. Tien looked uncomfortable at the outburst, but he stepped closer to Roshi.

"Sir, I know I don't have the right to try to give you advice after everything I've done today, but I think you should trust her. She's…" He shook his head, as though trying to clear it. "If Kakarot grows up to be anything like her then I was foolish to think well of myself for gaining a victory over him as a child."

Roshi's eyes had not left Gine's.

"Thank you for the advice, everyone," he said coldly, "but I've seen Demon King Piccolo for myself, and I will not trust his defeat to someone I haven't faced in battle."

Gine gave him a slow nod.

"If you'll permit me," she said, "I would prefer that no one else watch."

Roshi gave her an answering nod, and the two of them walked outside, finding a sheltered spot on the now-deserted tournament grounds. Roshi shed his suit jacket and tie until he was shirtless and lowered himself into a fighting stance. Gine took her own stance.

"Since this is merely about testing my strength," she said, "and I don't want to hurt you, how about we put some limits on this?"

"Not a problem," Roshi said. "I think one exchange of blows should make things clear."

"In that case, why don't you go first?"

"I admit," Roshi said, deepening his stance, "something is telling me to take your word for it. You are certainly very sure of yourself."

"Just hit me, old man," Gine said flatly. Roshi gave a loud kiai and came at her with a simple, straightforward punch that clearly had all his strength in it. If he had fought Tien like this he might have won. Then again, he might have killed him in the process. Gine took the blow to her stomach with barely a gasp. Truthfully, it hurt quite a lot. But if there was one thing those years of abuse had given her, it was the ability to take a beating. She smiled, her lips curling up in an almost evil expression.

"My turn," she said. Now that she had his full strength gauged, she knew exactly how much to hold back. She gave him an answering blow in the stomach, and he wheezed painfully as all the air was forcefully expelled from his abdomen. He folded over on her fist, and she gently lowered him to the ground. He was conscious, but only barely.

"I'm sorry if that was a little much for you, old-timer," she said wryly. "But I did hold back as much as I could." Roshi gave a painful chuckle in reply.

"You've convinced me," he whispered. "I will allow you to fight him. Not that I could do much to stop you, I see that now. But if you will permit me, I would feel much better if we had a safety measure in place."

"That's fine," Gine said, kneeling down and putting Roshi's head on her knees. "Whatever makes you feel better. All I want is to protect my new home."

"I'm going to ask you to keep this a secret," Roshi said, his voice still a whisper but sounding more and more as though it were a choice to speak softly. "Though I didn't want to admit it, I do know the technique my master used to seal the Demon King. But it cost him his life to use it."

"You're saying you want to have that technique ready, just in case?" Gine asked. "That doesn't sound like you have much faith in me."

"If you had seen the depths of cruelty the Demon King could sink to, you would not be offended," Roshi said. His voice trembled, and not with the pain in his stomach.

"Fine. But you won't get a chance to use it," Gine said, standing and helping Roshi to his feet. He smiled, and they shook hands.

"I very much hope you are right, my dear."


	6. The Problem of King Piccolo

Gine stood facing the old Namekian, who she supposed might look a bit like a demon to a human that had never seen one before. She had never heard of an evil Namekian, but then, she doubted many people had heard of a Saiyan who hated killing. Certainly his eyes held the kind of cruelty that was rare even among Saiyans: eyes that spoke of someone who didn't just enjoy other people's suffering, but was _nourished_ by it. In fact, she had seen eyes like that only one other time in her life: the one time she had ever come face-to-face with Frieza.

Gine lowered herself into a Namekian laughed, a harsh barking sound that sent shivers down her spine.

"What is this? I see two martial arts masters standing right behind you, woman, and yet you seek to take on the mighty King Piccolo yourself? Such foolishness I have never seen in all my days. Such cowardice on the part of those men back there. I might almost be insulted, except I plan on killing you all anyway. I suppose it doesn't matter in which order I do it."

"Let me clear up one thing for you," Gine said through her teeth. "Those men back there are human. I am a Saiyan."

The Namekian scoffed.

"And what is that supposed to be? Some kind of vegetable? A woman is a woman, regardless of what else she is."

Gine blinked in confusion for a moment, and then shook her head to clear it. So he didn't know what a Saiyan was. All the better. That way it would come as a surprise.

Without exchanging any further words, Gine launched herself at King Piccolo. She had time to savor the shock in his eyes before she slammed her fist straight into his face. He flew backwards several yards and landed heavily. She was on him before he could get up, landing an axe kick on his stomach and then wedging her foot underneath his prone body to kick him up into the air, where she kicked him back down to earth again. Namekians didn't have bones quite the same way Saiyans and humans did, so there was no satisfying crack of them breaking as she gave him blow after blow. But it was clear nonetheless that he was suffering, and a part of her, buried deep, drank in the sight like water. The rest of her found being the cause of someone else's pain completely distasteful, and she stepped back for a moment, centering herself and deciding to simply end him in one last blow.

"Saiyan…" the Namekian was whispering, somehow still conscious. He was looking at her as though trying to figure something out. Her tail lashed behind her in irritation, and she drew back a fist, ready to fire an energy blast strong enough to disintegrate him. "That tail… the boy…"

Gine froze.

"What boy? What are you talking about?"

King Piccolo chuckled, a wet sound due to all the blood in his mouth. He pulled himself slowly to his feet, not nearly as injured as Gine had assumed he was.

"I see now," he said. "It all makes sense. You must be his mother, I take it? I can see the family resemblance now that I know to look for it."

"What are you talking about?" Gine growled, starting to lose her composure.

"Oh, just reminiscing about a little boy I killed earlier," King Piccolo said airily. Gine considered this for a moment, and then barked out a bitter laugh.

"You? Kill Kakarot? You must think I'm really stupid."

But the Namekian merely smiled.

"Go on. Try and sense his energy. I know you must be able to, as strong as you are."

Confidently at first, but then with growing panic, Gine reached out with her senses to try to find the bright spot that was her son. He was never usually hard to find. From time to time in his travels she would reach out just to see how he was doing. There was no one else on this planet whose flame burned quite as brightly as his, or in quite the same way, and being able to sense him even all the way across the planet was comforting.

But this time she couldn't find him. It wasn't like the times she reached out and his energy was faint. She could always tell he was merely hungry, injured or sleeping. This time he simply wasn't there. All across the planet burned the dim little dots of the mass of humanity, interrupted here and there by the slightly brighter spots of martial arts masters and very strong humans. But there was no pillar of flame that stood out like a tree amongst grass. No familiar bright, happy, laughing energy that felt like pure joy. Nothing. And its absence tore a hole through Gine's heart.

Without warning she felt a fist slam into her face, and she staggered back. Before she could collect herself, Piccolo was landing blow after blow, fast enough that in her distracted state, all she could do was ineffectively block and simply try to endure the blows. She knew if she could just get one good hit on him he was dead, but he wasn't giving her any openings big enough for her to exploit with only half her attention. Soon he seemed to realize that mere punches were going to take too long to wear her down, and he planted a foot in her chest and kicked her hard enough to send her flying. She immediately leapt to her feet, hoping this was the opening she had been looking for, but it turned out he had merely been giving himself space to start utilizing some kind of energy attack that came from his eyes. One of them hit her in the meat of her arm and she roared in pain- the attacks weren't particularly powerful, but they were sharp and focused, and she couldn't simply endure them the way she could his punches.

Now completely on the defensive, she could only try to dodge the piercing eye beams, and before long her dress was dotted with holes. He was speaking, saying something about her son and how easily he had died, and in a flash of insight Gine realized she was going to lose.

Most Saiyans used anger as a source for their power, but anger had only ever made her weak and confused. Her grief and rage over Kakarot's death would not help her now. And on the other hand, Gohan's teachings relied on a calm heart and a clear mind, but she had only ever given the idea lip service. It was easy enough to stay calm while living isolated in the woods, but she had never expected to find herself in a real fight ever again. Facing a foe that, while in terms of sheer power was beneath her, had her beat through superior experience and skill, was teaching her a lesson she wasn't sure she would survive long enough to learn.

Briefly the assault let up, and she tried desperately to bring enough power to bear to blast him away in the seconds she had to breathe, but he was already powering up an enormous energy attack of his own, and she knew this was a race she could not win. All she could do was cross her arms in front of her and try to brace for impact as best she could.

But the impact never came. Instead, there was a sudden release of pressure as the energy Piccolo had been building dissipated all at once. She opened her eyes and caught a brief glimpse of some kind of swirling green vortex, the stretched-out spectre of King Piccolo in the middle of it. She turned around and watched as Master Roshi directed the swirl of energy with his hands, guiding it to slam down into an electric rice cooker, which Gohan quickly closed. Roshi collapsed, and Gohan and Gine both ran to him.

"It's done," Roshi was gasping, as Gohan gave him energy. He met Gine's eyes and added, "You sure showed me. I feel pretty silly for doubting you now."

Gine could only shake her head. Exhausted, she fell to her knees, and then, sensing that Gohan was about to echo Roshi's sentiments, she bowed herself to the ground and spoke to him first.

"I owe you an apology," she said to the ground. "I've never taken your training seriously. I only ever saw it as a game, and I understand now how incredibly foolish that was. Please accept my apology."

"Now, now," Gohan said, sounding embarrassed. "There's no need for all that. You had no good reason to take it seriously. By rights you should never have met someone on this planet who would even be able to stand up to you."

"That's exactly the problem," Gine said, not lifting up her head. "I've told you about Frieza. Do you remember?"

"Well, yes, but we figured it would be highly unlikely for him to ever come here, right?"

"And how likely did any of you think it would be for the Demon King to rise again?" Gine said harshly. "I've been so happy here, I've gotten incredibly complacent. I assumed things would simply go on as they had forever, and that unwillingness to face reality has now cost my son his life."

Gine was unable to continue speaking through the tears that swelled her throat. She felt Gohan's comforting hand on her shoulder.

"There there, my dear. We have almost all the dragonballs. We'll simply find the remaining ones and wish him and the others back to life. It's possible Frieza may never come here and you're worrying for nothing. You helped us achieve a great victory today, Gine, and you should be proud of that."

"The dragon balls!" Roshi said, laboring to stand up. "He had the last two. Where are they now?"

Gohan pulled out the dragon radar, and the other two crowded around him to look.

"They should be right around here," he said, puzzled. Gine looked up at the airship that was still hovering over them. As they watched, it began to slowly fly away. With a growl, Gine launched herself into the air and landed on the deck of the airship. A small blue creature with large ears gave a loud shriek and scuttled backwards, tripping over the corpse of some kind of pterodactyl. Gine strode over to him and picked him up by his collar.

"Where are the other two dragon balls?" she demanded. He gibbered and bluffed, and she shook him. "I am not a patient woman! Tell me where they are!"

"M-Mai! Your lord needs you!" the small blue man screamed. A woman in a trench coat holding a minigun emerged from the control room, and Gine pointed a finger at the gun and blasted it out of her fingers. She brought her face in closer to the small man's and growled.

"Dragon balls! Now!"

"D-d-do as the nice woman says, Mai!"

Reluctantly, the woman took two dragon balls out of her coat pocket and handed them over. Gine, recalling herself, set the little blue man down on the deck gently.

"Thank you very much for your cooperation," she said calmly, before leaping off the side of the airship. Pilaf stood where she had set him, still shaking in shock. Before Mai could ask after his well-being, his body slowly tilted backwards until he fell to the ground.

"My lord!" Mai yelled, gathering up her emperor and shaking him slightly. "Are you alright?"

He moaned.

"Make a note for the official record, Mai," he said faintly. "From now on, no matter what's at stake, we leave anyone with a tail the hell alone."

* * *

 _A/N: By rights those last two Dragon Balls should still be in King Piccolo's stomach, but I decided to give Masako a break on this one._


	7. Korin and Kami

Gine landed delicately next to Gohan, handing him the last two dragon balls. She watched with numb detachment as he summoned the dragon, but before he could speak their wish, a familiar sound jolted through her ears, sending her heart into a gallop. Her eyes snapped up of their own accord to see Kakarot riding the nimbus toward them at great speed, waving and laughing. Before she could fully process what she was seeing, he had already jumped down and flung himself into her arms.

"Ma!" he shouted. "You're alright! Thank goodness!"

"That's my line, young man!" Gine scolded, holding him out at arm's length. His clothing was ruined, but other than that he looked totally fine. Relief squeezed her heart so hard it turned into rage, leaving her limbs weak and pricking her eyes with hot tears. Had Piccolo tricked her? Or, worse, had her own mind been tricking her? Had she overestimated her abilities and simply been unable to sense him even though he was there? Too many emotions warred for dominance and she shook her son hard, screaming at him even as she wanted to fold him in her arms and never let go. "What happened to you? I couldn't sense your energy anywhere! I thought you were dead!"

"I almost was," Kakarot said offhandedly, his only concession to the shaking being to grasp her wrists to stabilize himself. His total lack of concern at her anger had never infuriated her more than it did now. "But that's not important. Korin told me _you_ defeated King Piccolo! Is that really true?"

Gine's righteous fury faltered.

"Well, I…"

"She sure did!" Roshi said, stepping forward. "It was incredible! I've never seen fighting like that in all my life!"

Kakarot stared at her in wonder, and Gine felt the rage give one last stab through her body and then ebb away. She didn't know why Roshi was being so kind. She _hadn't_ defeated Piccolo. He and Gohan had had to seal him away because she had gotten distracted. Her son was alive, but through no effort of hers. She didn't deserve their praise, and she most certainly did not deserve the awe she saw growing in her son's eyes.

"If it weren't for your mother, we all very likely would have been killed," Gohan said, coming up to join them. Gine flashed him a warning look that he ignored. Kakarot, still dangling from her arms, opened his mouth to speak, but they were all interrupted by the dragon clearing its throat.

"I GROW IMPATIENT. SPEAK YOUR WISH NOW."

The flurry of activity that followed put the conversation permanently on hold. They wished back everyone who had been killed by King Piccolo and his children, and then travelled to Kame House to check on everyone there and fill them in on what happened. Roshi, Gohan, and Kakarot all filed through the door, greeted with shouts of joy from inside, but Gine couldn't bring herself to even step onto the porch. She could hear them in there, recounting the battle they insisted on calling her victory, and her shame made it impossible for her to face their gratitude.

Kakarot came out to join her after a few minutes, now wearing his staff, and he took her by the hand and lead her over to the nimbus. She climbed on, almost in a daze, and nimbus took off. Every so often Kakarot would turn back to look at her, as though checking to make sure she was still there. She smiled back whenever he did, still just happy he was alive and with her, but for most of the flight she was frowning, deep in thought.

Complacency. That was the problem. She had allowed complacency to creep into her heart and it had nearly cost her everything. Gine had wanted to be a fighter for about as long as it took her to get in her first fight, at which point it had become abundantly clear to everyone (herself most of all) that Gine was not a proper Saiyan and never would be. Being forced to come to Earth had turned out to be a blessing in disguise, for although she mourned her people, she had found fulfillment and happiness here on this alien world full of beings that were pretty much the opposite of Saiyans: weak and senselessly kind. And then when these weak beings had been threatened, when it had been up to her to protect them and repay them for everything they had done for her, she had been unable to.

Worse, for once in her life her power level hadn't been the deciding factor. If she'd managed to hold on to even a tiny fraction of the Saiyan killing instinct she had always shied away from, she would have done away with the Namekian in seconds. Instead she had allowed him to get inside her head and destroy her confidence, and she hadn't been strong enough to withstand his superior skill on top of the mental onslaught. This particular threat had now been neutralized, no thanks to her, but next time…?

And it would be foolish to think there wouldn't be a next time. Even if Frieza never came here, Kakarot had told her of several power-hungry Earthlings he had dispatched. What if one of them somehow grew powerful enough to challenge a Saiyan, or used technology to bridge the gap? Earthlings were weak creatures, but they were wily beyond anything Gine had imagined, and some of them were as blood-thirsty as Saiyans. She thought briefly of the peaceful life in the mountains she had led, engaging no foes more vicious than deer trying to eat her rhubarb, and knew, though she didn't want to admit it, that those carefree days were over.

Suddenly she noticed they were flying in the wrong direction to be going back to the mountain.

"Where are we going, Kakarot?"

Kakarot spun around on the cloud, looking at her eagerly.

"I'm takin' you to Korin's Tower! I want you to teach me everything you know, and then he'll teach us everything he knows, and then I'll teach you the Kamehameha! I had no idea you were so strong, ma! If I'da known that I woulda taken you to Korin's earlier."

Gine had only a vague idea who Korin was. Her son related events in order of interest, not chronologically, and he left many things out entirely. For instance, until the day before she had assumed Launch was merely two sisters and Kakarot had forgotten one of their names. Unless she was mistaken, which was very possible, Korin was some kind of con artist, or possibly a healer. Considering she had only ever heard of him through the lens of Kakarot's storytelling, he was just as likely to turn out to be a cat.

Still, Gine couldn't quite bring herself to tell her son to simply take her home. She reached out and stroked his hair, and he leaned back into the motion, and for just a moment he was her little baby boy again. She knew it was an illusion, but she couldn't help but hold onto it even so. Perhaps this was one of the reasons why Saiyan mothers didn't grow attached to their young. Allowing herself to love him and then let him leave had turned out to be a sweet kind of pain that only grew harder to bear after nearly losing him for good.

Soon they came to a large tower that stretched far into the sky, and it turned out Korin was indeed a cat, and a martial arts master to boot. He also seemed able to read minds, and he gave Gine a knowing wink when Kakarot requested that he train them.

"Sorry, pal, you lot are stronger than I know what to do with. You're going to have to speak to a higher power if you want someone to train you now."

"A higher power?" Kakarot repeated.

"That staff you got there ain't just for beating people with, you know. It was originally the thing that connected this tower with the sanctuary that floats high above it. The sanctuary that houses… God."

Gine tried not to giggle, she really did. It was hard to take him seriously when, not only was he speaking of deity as though it existed, but he was also, well, a cat. The cat gave her a sour look. Kakarot merely looked confused.

"What're you talking about?"

"It'll be easier if you just go up there and see for yourself," Korin said. "Both of you are so strong that God is the only one who can train you now."

If the Earthlings thought a Namekian was a demon, there was no telling what their God might turn out to be. In spite of herself, Gine grew curious.

"Okay!" Kakarot sang out happily. "How do we meet this God guy?"

Korin pointed heavenward.

"Simply place your staff in the sconce on the very top of this Tower and extend it all the way up. And take this bell as proof that you come with my blessing."

Kakarot took the bell and did as instructed, Gine following, bemused. Before Kakarot made the staff extend, however, Korin had one last piece of advice for them that sobered her considerably.

"Oh, and when you get up there, don't worry. Your eyes aren't playing tricks on you, but remember: neither am I."

* * *

Korin's words fell into place the moment she saw Kami's face. He was waiting for them, standing next to a rotund person in a turban, but both she and her son only had eyes for the tall green man who looked exactly like King Piccolo.

"Greetings," he said, but was able to get out no more than that before Kakarot shouted ferociously and leaped forward. Gine had just enough presence of mind to grab him by the tail and yank him back.

"Who are you?" she demanded, holding her son upside down by his tail. Korin's assurances notwithstanding, if his answer wasn't satisfactory she would let her son go and join him in battle.

"I am Kami," the Namekian said, and Gine could see that his eyes held no cruelty. "I suppose I can't blame you for mistaking me for Piccolo, but I assure you we are two separate beings, though this was not always the case. Long ago, he and I were one. In order to become Kami I had to expel all the evil from my heart, and that evil became Piccolo. This has long been my shame, and in gratitude to you for defeating him, I will grant you any request."

Kakarot finally squirmed out of Gine's grip and landed lightly on his feet.

"I want to train with you!" It was as though his previous aggression had been totally forgotten. Gine had time to smile at his innocence before he pointed at her and added, "And so does my ma!"

The smile fell from her face, and she opened her mouth to say— well, _something_ , but before she could, Kami nodded, stroking his chin.

"I see," he said. "Very well."

Kakarot danced around, delighted, and Gine tried to think of some way to politely decline. Kami caught her gaze and gave her a knowing look, and although his face was kind, it also put her in mind of his evil counterpart. His horrible laughter echoed in her ears, and she swallowed down her objections. Next time she wouldn't flounder. Next time she would be ready, and if that meant training with this old Namekian, so be it.

Kakarot looked up at her with an expression of such pure joy that it was impossible not to answer it with a smile of her own.


	8. Saiyans at Sunrise

_A/N:_ _One of the rules I set for myself with this story has been if Masako doesn't specifically mention a change then things go as they do in canon. This means_ _that before Masako confirmed that Kakarot does indeed still have his tail, I assumed it was still cut off during the three years with Kami, despite Gine being there. I found that idea interesting enough to write about, but not long after I published this chapter originally, Masako came out with part five, clearly showing Kakarot with a tail. Since this chapter delves into certain aspects of Gine's character I find important for the overall narrative, I didn't want to simply delete it._ _I may come back and fix it later, but until then feel free to put it in the same questionable canon box as the movies. :D_

* * *

Gine sat at the edge of the Lookout, staring at the growing sliver of pink at the edge of the sky, Kakarot's sleeping head on her lap, and felt Kami come to stand next to her.

"It was the right thing to do," he said, and Gine slowly shook her head.

"I know that but…. He and I are the only two left. I'm the only Saiyan alive who remembers our culture, so anything I choose not to pass on won't get passed on, period. It feels like I'm killing them all over again every time I don't tell him something. I know I've been raising him as an Earthling all this time, so it shouldn't matter now, but this feels like I've crossed some line I can't uncross."

Kami shifted slightly.

"But his tail has grown back before, yes?"

"It won't this time," Gine said flatly. "He's too old and there's too much scar tissue. He'll never be an Oozaru again."

She buried her face in her hands. Kami put a hand on her shoulder, and he kept it there until the sun rose.

* * *

"Ma, my butt hurts."

Gine looked down at her son, who in turn looked up at her. His eyes were red and his hair even more mussed than normal. His voice was hoarse and there was a faint question in his eyes.

"Lay on your side, then," she said reasonably. He complied.

"What happened?" he asked after he was comfortable.

"You went Oozaru and we had to cut off your tail," she said bluntly. Kakarot was silent for a moment as he digested this.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I know I'm real bad about lookin' at the moon when I shouldn't."

"That's okay," Gine said, although she didn't quite mean it. "It won't grow back this time."

"Oh, that's good then," Kakarot said, his easygoing acceptance piercing her heart like an arrow. "I guess I get real strong when that happens, but since I don't remember it it sort of feels like cheating. Plus I just make a big mess anyway."

It was all true, but not one bit of it made Gine feel any better. She stroked her fingers through his hair for a few minutes, and then he spoke again.

"Ma, you've gone Oozaru before, right? How did you keep from makin' a big mess?"

Gine tilted her head back and looked up at the fading stars. On planet Vegeta the moon came full only once a year. In her girlhood, there had been a planet-wide festival to celebrate it, a 24 hour period during which everyone except the extremely old took the great ape form. It was a time of drinking and feasting, and, off in the mountains away from young ones, orgies and couplings. Many children were born after the festival to unknown parentage, and Gine herself had been one of these. She felt that made it extra ironic that the festival was her least favorite time of year, and she avoided participating whenever possible. Still, being forced to take the form once a year had allowed her to gain what little control over it she had. There was always that one guy who destroyed some important building or killed someone he shouldn't have on the festival night and woke up the next morning with egg on his face, and at the very least she could say she had never been that guy.

"Practice," she said.

Kakarot was silent for another few minutes, and Gine took the moment— the sky smeared with the pinks and oranges of sunrise, her son's hair in her fingers, his head a welcome weight on her lap— and pressed it into her memory like a flower between the pages of a book. She knew she would not have another moment like it again. Kakarot was starting to shed his baby fat, and he was already several inches taller than he had been when they arrived at the Lookout. Soon he would be physically mature, and her little baby boy would be gone. For so long she had been waiting for that day, and now that it was imminent she wanted to delay it as long as she could. She wondered if he would still look like Bardock once he was grown. She wondered if she wanted him to.

"Ma?" Kakarot said sleepily. She glanced down, surprised to find him falling asleep again. "How come you never told me you were so strong?"

 _I'm not. Every Saiyan I've ever known was stronger than me, and you probably will be too, but both of us are so much stronger than every other Earthling we will ever meet. Strength is not the metric I wanted you to use to judge people. Besides, I was enjoying pretending to be an Earthling too much. Would I have kept the secret if I had known how much fun it would be sparring with you, son? I never did quite believe Gohan when he told me I could fight without being a bloodthirsty monster, find joy in the fight without finding joy in the violence, but somehow you found that balance, and now you're showing it to me. Is this what it means to be a Saiyan raised as an Earthling?_

"It never came up," she said, and somehow he accepted it.


	9. The Forgotten Fiance

It was raining on the day of the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai. Despite the weather the grounds were packed with people, including Gine and Kakarot.

"Do you see 'em yet, ma?" Kakarot asked, tipping up on his toes to look over heads. "I can't wait to show 'em how much I've grown!"

Gine smiled and followed more sedately, twirling a straw umbrella in her hands. It had only been three years, but it felt like an entire lifetime since she had seen their old friends. The prospect of seeing them now gave her slight butterflies, but the calm heart she had cultivated on Kami's Lookout quelled her nerves and she could look forward to seeing them with more enjoyment than anxiety.

"Oh! There they are!" Kakarot grabbed her arm and dragged her through the crowd until they came to a stop in front of Roshi, Grandpa Gohan, Bulma, and Launch. "Wow, you guys look great!"

"Who—" Bulma began, but then spotted Gine behind Kakarot, and her mouth dropped open. Her eyes ping-ponged between them in disbelief. "No way! You're not little Kakarot!"

"Not so little, but definitely still Kakarot," Gine confirmed as her son grinned ear-to-ear. She and Bulma leaned in for a quick hug. "It's good to see you, dear. Where's Yamcha?"

Bulma rolled her eyes.

"As soon as he heard you guys were up training with Kami, he left on some trip to go train in the desert. I haven't seen him since, and good riddance!"

Bulma turned up her nose, but Gine could tell her indifference was mostly an act. She smiled indulgently, and turned to see Gohan chatting with Kakarot. The old man saw her and a wide grin broke out over his face.

"Gine! It's been so long! How have you been, my dear?"

They embraced.

"I see Kakarot has finally become a man," he said.

"He's as tall as one," Gine said with an affectionate eye roll. "You're going to be amazed at his strength. He intends to enter the tournament, but I don't really know what for."

"You should enter too, ma," Kakarot said, turning from where he was showing off his height to Roshi and Bulma. "We could fight each other in the final match!"

Gine shook her head.

"I'll leave the fun and games to you, son," she said.

"Oh, you think it will be that easy, do you?" said a familiar voice. They turned to find Tien, accompanied by Chiaotzu, Yamcha, and Krillin, all road-weary but smiling. Tien stepped forward and bowed to Gine. "Ma'am, I would be honored if you would enter. I've gotten a lot stronger since the last time we met, and I'm eager to test my skills against you."

"I can see that," Gine said, using the insight she had developed while training with Kami to perceive what Tien was capable of. For an Earthling it was truly impressive. Apparently he'd taken their last interaction as a challenge. "So have I, but I didn't gain this strength to use it to win a tournament."

"Aw, ma, don't make it sound like I'm bein' selfish," Kakarot whined. "I just want to see how strong everyone's gotten."

"There's nothing wrong with _you_ entering, Kakarot," Gine said mildly. "I just don't want to, that's all."

She could see Tien hiding his disappointment, but she knew he'd be even more disappointed if they fought.

"It's not fair!" Krillin wailed, looking up at Kakarot's new height. "No offense, ma'am, but I was starting to think the males of your species were just smaller than the women. There's no way I can catch up to _that_."

Everyone laughed, and into this merriment two more people entered, one of them considerably taller than even Kakarot.

"My word!" Gohan exclaimed. "Ox King? Is that you?"

"It sure is, Gohan!" the Ox King boomed. "Long time no see!"

The two men began to catch up, and the other figure, who had been standing in Ox King's shadow, stepped forward, coming to rest with a bounce immediately in front of Kakarot. She was a beautiful young woman, and her long black hair and large black eyes made her look, to Gine at least, almost Saiyan.

"Kakarot!" she said, peering behind him at Gine. "Is that yer ma?"

"Uh, yeah, but who're you?" Kakarot said, puzzled. The young woman reared back and glared at him.

"Who do you think, dummy? That's my pa back there."

"Ox King's your…? Wait, _Chi-Chi_?" Kakarot gaped at the young woman before him. "But you were a little girl!"

"And you were a little boy," she snapped. "And it looks like ya still are. Next you'll be tellin' me ya forgot yer promise."

"Uh…"

Chi-Chi's eyes immediately blazed with anger.

"Are you tellin' me you forgot you promised to marry me?"

"I did?"

Gine, who knew her son could be forgetful, but not _that_ forgetful, watched the exchange with breathless anticipation. So did everyone else.

"You said you'd come back and ask my father for my hand! Are you sayin' you don't remember that?"

"I— I did say something like that, I guess," Kakarot admitted, scratching his head. "What does that mean, to ask for someone's hand? I don't want no body parts! I ain't that kinda guy."

Gine snorted before she could help herself. Krillin put a hand over his mouth to hide his giggles and Bulma, arm already hooked into Yamcha's, rolled her eyes. Kakarot turned to his mother with a helpless look, but Gine was not about to bail him out. She raised a meaningful eyebrow, and eventually he turned back to Chi-Chi.

"You're sayin' we gotta get married 'cause I wanted your hand?"

"Gotta? _Gotta!?_ " Chi-Chi spluttered indignantly. "Well, if marryin' me would be such a _hardship_ , then maybe you should just forget it!" Chi-Chi thrust her nose up in the air and turned her back on Kakarot, addressing Gine instead. "Ma'am, may I present to you my father, the Ox King."

The girl couldn't have been more than 110 pounds soaking wet, so Gine was impressed to see her take her giant father by the arm and drag him to the fore. Oddly, there was a blush flaming on his cheeks, but the reason for it became clear when Kakarot chose that exact moment to lean over and whisper in Gine's ear.

"Ma, remember, he's single."

Gine elbowed her son hard in the kidney.

"I'm aware of that, Kakarot. You bring it up every time you mention him."

"I'll just leave you two to get acquainted," Chi-Chi said with a suggestive smile, taking Kakarot by the arm and leading him away, already berating him again. Ox King scratched his head, smiling nervously.

"It seems my girl is set on marryin' your boy," he said. "He seems like a nice feller, I wouldn't mind havin' him as a son-in-law."

Gine glanced at their two children. Chi-Chi was yelling at Kakarot, her voice carrying easily despite being some distance away. Kakarot was just standing there taking it, slowly rubbing the back of his head with one hand. Gine had lectured her son more times than she could count, but he'd never once reacted to her with _sheepishness_. The pity she had sometimes felt for her future daughter-in-law (assuming Kakarot could, or even wanted to, get himself a wife) seemed silly now.

Gine smiled.

"The feeling is mutual," she said.


	10. Gine and Gohan

"Ma, the baby's comin'!"

Gine looked up from where she was weeding the garden to see Kakarot running full pelt toward her, looking more scared and panicked than she had ever seen him look in his life. She stood abruptly and he took one last leap over her plants and landed in front of her, plowing up a small scar in the earth in his haste.

"What the hell do you mean, the baby's coming?" she demanded, even as he grabbed her arm and dragged her toward the house. "It's already here, inside your wife's stomach, you idiot. We've told you that over and over."

"I dunno!" Kakarot shrieked. "Alls I know is Chi-Chi's hurtin' real bad and she says the baby's comin'."

That wasn't good. Saiyans usually had easy pregnancies, but the doctors had made sure to tell her that if she ever started to hurt she should come see them, because that meant something was very wrong. Gine had made it to both birth appointments without experiencing any pain whatsoever, but she had heard of women who got really sick because the baby had gone wrong and died inside them. When Kakarot flung the door off its hinges and dragged her to the bedroom to see bloody sheets and Chi-Chi doubled over and screaming, Gine wasted no time. She scooped her daughter-in-law up in her arms and made it as far as the front door before Gohan flung himself in front of her, arms wide.

"Put her down, my dear," he said sternly. "She needs to stay in bed."

"She needs to go to the hospital!" Gine shouted, a redness creeping into the edges of her vision. She loved Gohan like the father she had never known, but she would knock his head off his shoulders if he continued to stand in her way.

"Ma, for heaven's sakes, put me down," Chi-Chi grunted, breathing heavily. "This is really uncomfortable."

She groaned and squeezed her eyes shut, gripping Gine's arm so tightly it almost hurt.

"You're hurting and you're bleeding," Gine said urgently, trying to dance around Gohan in the doorway. "That means you need a doctor."

"The midwife's already on her way," Ox King said, as infuriatingly calm as Gohan.

"Gramps, can't you see she's hurtin'?" Kakarot pled with Gohan.

"Put me down this instant, or so help me—" Chi-Chi roared, but before she could finish the sentence another wave of pain shuddered through her and she stuffed the collar of her nightgown into her mouth and screamed.

"We need to wait for the midwife," Gohan was telling Kakarot. Gine finally hooked her ankle around the old man's leg and dropped him to the floor, striding out into the yard with her daughter-in-law in her arms, and was in the act of bending her knees to take to the sky before she noticed the person standing on the path just outside the house.

"Here I am, here I am," the wizened old woman said calmly. "My, you young people can be so impatient."

* * *

It turned out that while Earth babies _could_ be removed surgically, usually they simply came out the way they went in. And, yes, a little blood and a lot of pain was completely normal. Chi-Chi had a strong body and wide hips, and the baby was positioned correctly, so there was no reason to think this would be anything other than textbook.

The midwife, a sweet old woman with sure hands and a wealth of knowledge, explained everything to her with god-like patience as she coaxed her into putting Chi-Chi back down on the bed, and Gine swallowed down her horror the best she could during this swift education. The thought that her ancestors had likely undergone this same process before regen tanks came into widespread use made her wonder why there were any Saiyans left at all.

She had no time for this kind of pondering, however, as the only one Chi-Chi wanted in the room while she labored besides the midwife was Gine. Gine had no idea why. Apparently she knew less about how birth worked than Grandpa Gohan. The unhurried, unworried fashion in which the midwife bustled around the house, preparing this or that and checking on Chi-Chi periodically, made her feel mightily stupid, and she wasn't very much enjoying being forced to listen to her daughter-in-law's agony while not being allowed to do anything about it. On second thought, this arrangement was probably for the best. Kakarot had been taken out into the woods by his grandfather, and Gine thought if the poor boy were here to hear his mate's screams he might well lose it.

Gine wondered silently, as the hours went on and nothing seemed to change, if any baby could possibly be worth this. Did it matter how cute the thing might be if she was just going to look at it and remember the screams and the blood that had resulted in it? She knew there was no room left in her heart for babies, anyway. What little space Kakarot didn't take up was reserved for a child she would never see again. This little half-human thing, probably a sterile hybrid if it was even healthy, couldn't possibly compare.

Chi-Chi gave one last, deep groan and the midwife leaned forward, her deeply wrinkled face furrowed even deeper in concentration. A minute later tiny lungs inflated for the first time and a high-pitched wailing filled the room. Gine found herself back in time, standing over a Saiyan pod, steeling herself to send her child out into the universe to face an unknown fate by himself. He was crying. The baby was crying, yelling as though his little heart would break, and she could not make herself turn away.

"It's a boy!" the midwife announced proudly.

"Aw," Chi-Chi sighed, leaning back on the pillows. The noise was mostly one of relief, although oddly it held a slight note of disappointment.

"Were you hoping for a girl?" the midwife asked kindly, busy with the infant, doing things Gine couldn't see. Chi-Chi lolled her head over to look at her mother-in-law, eyes bright with exhaustion.

"I was hopin' to name him after you," she said.

Something inside Gine's chest expanded nearly to bursting, leaving her choked and breathless, her eyes stinging with tears. The midwife handed a small bundle of blankets to Chi-Chi, and both women looked down at the tiny babe, squalling with displeasure and utterly beautiful.

"Did you have a name picked out for a boy?" the midwife asked. Neither woman took their eyes from the child.

"No," Chi-Chi said. "I was convinced it was going to be a girl. I was named after my grandmother and I wanted this little one to be too. Don't tell my pa, but I don't exactly want to name a boy after him."

Gine chuckled. She and the Ox King had bonded over their love for their children, as well as amusement at said children's early efforts to play matchmaker, but she didn't think his name was really suitable for passing on either. She reached out and placed the tip of her forefinger into the baby's palm, and he clutched it with all his strength.

"What about naming him after Gohan?" she said, and she could see Chi-Chi smile out of the corner of her eye.

"Gohan," she said, testing it out. "That's perfect."


	11. Reunion with Raditz

The screen door of Kame House creaked as she pushed it open. Gine stood in the doorway for a moment, holding the door open behind her, hesitating, taking stock. Something was waiting for her out there, and whatever it was, she wanted to be ready for it. There was Kakarot, standing on the beach a few yards from the front porch, boots planted in the sand and expression grim. Gine's eyes slid over to glance at the person he was facing, preparing herself for the worst, but once she saw him her whole body froze and the screen door slipped from suddenly nerveless fingertips to swing back with a slam.

She had wondered, from time to time, in her more morbid moments, what her firstborn child would look like now, had he survived. She had imagined him so many different ways: slight of build like her, sour of expression like Bardock. She had imagined him in Frieza armor, scouter on his face and a swagger in his step. She had pictured him in an orange Turtle school gi once or twice. She had even imagined him in some other race's clothing, having secretly survived the explosion, tail hidden and hair cut.

She had never thought to wonder if she would recognize him, never entertained the possibility that she wouldn't know her own son, even with an extra four feet and two and a half decades on him. The person standing on the sand outside Kame House, looking bewildered and a little angry, both raised the question and answered it in one heart-freezing moment. She knew him. Of course she knew him. How could she not?

And he… If she had never thought to wonder if she would recognize him, she had at least known he would look different than she remembered. But it had never entered her mind to wonder if he might not recognize her. He had been so young the last time they met, and it had been so long since then. There was every possibility that he might not know her. But the expression on his face when he caught sight of her, having looked up, startled, at the door slamming shut behind her, told her there hadn't even been a moment's hesitation. He knew her. He knew his mother, just as she knew her son.

"Raditz…" Gine whispered, for the first time in twenty-five years.

"M-mother?" Raditz said.

"Huh?" Kakarot demanded, breaking the moment. Gine shook herself, and stepped down off the porch without once taking her eyes off her son— off Raditz. It was a painful joy to have to differentiate between which son she meant, because she had never, not once in her whole life, had both of them in her field of view at the same time.

"This is…" She had to swallow a few times before she could speak. "Kakarot, this is your older brother, Raditz."

Kakarot's head whipped around to face his mother so fast she was worried for his neck. Then he whipped it around again, nearly as fast, to study the large Saiyan in front of him.

It turned out Raditz had grown taller than Kakarot, by a lot, and was much more solidly built. In fact, to put it plainly, he was kind of a tank, and Gine wondered briefly who he had inherited that from. She doubted her own father had been this huge, whoever he was. If he had, surely she wouldn't have been so small and slight herself. But there were other differences between them, much more subtle and dangerous ones, that caught her eye more.

Kakarot was staring at his brother openly, which was a rude thing to do here on Earth but which would not trouble a Saiyan. What would trouble him, what clearly _was_ troubling him, was the total lack of the posturing, flexing, and sizing-up that was standard practice for Saiyans who had never met before. Kakarot was just standing there, barely even keeping up a basic guard, as though his strength were so obvious and far above the other that he didn't need to bother. If Kakarot had been a normal Saiyan, playing by normal Saiyan rules, his behavior would be an open insult.

And Raditz, who had been young when his planet was destroyed, but hardly young enough to have failed to pick up on his own culture's social cues, was clearly feeling the insult. His fists were clenching, and though it was clear all he wanted to do was stare at his mother in disbelief, his eyes kept darting back to Kakarot, updating his threat assessment on him every few seconds. Gine had to do something before he just hauled off and punched his brother, the only civilized thing to do in response to such behavior.

"Raditz," she said. "How are you alive? I thought…?"

"How am _I_ alive?" he demanded. "How are _you_ alive? Father told me he was sending Kakarot off-world, he didn't say one word about _you_!"

It was almost aggravating, Gine thought, how that could still sting, even all these years later.

"I went with him," she said, as though that were not obvious. Raditz snarled.

"You went with him," he mocked. "Like it was that easy. Like of _course_ you couldn't leave your child. Like it was your job to babysit instead of trying to defend your homeworld. You were always weak, but I didn't think you were this _cowardly_."

The old Gine, the one who had been assigned to the kitchens and been grateful, had been used to this kind of talk, even from her own son. The person she had been would have stood there and taken it, because she had no argument to make and no way back one up if she had.

The Gine she was now tapped her foot on the ground hard enough to create a shockwave that rocked the whole island. Raditz stared at her, and then closed his mouth.

"I asked you a question," she said softly. "How did you survive?"

"I was off world at the time," Raditz answered sullenly. "And _I_ asked _you_ a question. Why did you go with Kakarot? Why—" Raditz bit back the words, and then shook his head and spat them out anyway. "Why didn't you come looking for _me_?"

"I…" She trailed off, not sure what to say. His near-plaintive tone hurt her heart, and in hindsight it was a good question. Had she known Raditz was off world at the time? She couldn't remember. If she'd had even the slightest doubt that Raditz was dead, why hadn't she taken off in her pod once she was away and gone looking for him? Isn't that what a mother would do? Saiyan mothers might not have coddled their young the way humans did, but they did try to protect them until they were capable of doing it themselves. But Raditz had been eight years old, plenty old enough to take care of himself. Was his question even reasonable to ask?

No, she realized, looking up to meet his eyes again. No, it wasn't a reasonable question, because Raditz was not thinking reasonably. She studied him again, more closely this time, and found an eloquently tragic story written in the scars on his body. Some of them were battle scars, trophies he had earned and could be proud of, but far more of them had been slowly and deliberately inflicted. He wasn't angry because she hadn't come looking for him, or because she was a coward. He was angry because he had been through hell and back and the whole time she had been not only alive, but living in paradise.

"Raditz, I thought everyone was dead," she said. "I'm so happy you're alive, but I had every reason to think Kakarot and I were the only Saiyans left."

He glared at her, but the glare softened as he studied her, doubtless putting together her story as she had put together his. A lone Saiyan stuck on a lush, weak planet with nowhere else to go and no reason to go there: would he not have done what she did? Would he not have stayed, and left the rest of the universe to go hang?

He wet his lips, perhaps in preparation to speak, but the door to the house creaked open again, startling the three of them. Krillin and Tien peeked their heads out, openly curious, but the last thing Gine wanted right now was an audience.

"Go back inside," she ordered, her voice, she knew, uncommonly stern. The two of them froze, but a small shape wriggled between their legs and burst out onto the porch, running over to Kakarot. Krillin started to run after the child, but Gine waved him away. "It's okay," she said, still maintaining eye contact with Raditz. "This is a family matter."

Almost every person on the tiny island sucked in a breath. Gine heard Krillin whispering to someone as he and Tien quickly backed up and shut the door, and Raditz was now staring at Gohan as Kakarot scooped him up and held him against his shoulder. Gohan hid his face in his father's hair, but left one eye exposed to study his uncle.

Gine knew she was going to pay for her cryptic comment. It would only raise a million questions, some of which she did not wish to answer. But all that could wait. Every blood relative she had in the universe was here, right in front of her, and she wanted to keep it that way for as long as she could.

"When you say family…?" Raditz said slowly, still not quite ready to let go of his anger, but unable to hold on to it in the face of such surprising news. He was still staring at Gohan, following his gently waving tail with his eyes.

"Yup," Kakarot said, patting Gohan affectionately. "This is my son, Gohan."

"Go...han...?" Raditz said, trying out the word. Gine hid a smile. It would have been an atrocious name for a Saiyan. Raditz grunted, a mostly neutral noise, but with undertones of approval. "Who spawned him, then?"

"My wife, Chi-Chi," Kakarot explained. "He's named after my Grandpa Gohan. He's the human that me and ma lived with when I was a baby. Say, you should live here with us, too!"

"Wha— me? _Live_ here? With you?" Raditz almost sounded amused, helpless in the face of one absurdity after another. Gine smiled, a part of her (a silly part, she knew) already imagining which room she would put him in and which of Ox King's shirts would be small enough for him to borrow. None of Kakarot's clothes would fit, that was for sure.

There was something like a smile growing on Raditz's face as well, a small, rusty thing that looked disused and slightly painful. He lifted his hand to his face, perhaps to brush away an errant strand of hair or put his hand on the back of his neck— but that was a gesture Kakarot would have made, Gine reminded herself, and Raditz was not a man who would have time for bashfulness. Whatever the gesture might have been, the second his fingers touched the scouter on his ear the smile faded. He stood there for a long moment, working something out in his mind, and then removed the scouter from his ear. Then, with slow deliberateness, making sure Gine could see what he was doing, he closed his finger over the microphone hole.

"We are not the only Saiyans left," he said, and it was clear this was not supposed to be good news. "Prince Vegeta and an elite named Nappa also survived. I work for them, and they are the ones who sent me here. We needed more muscle for a job and I remembered I had a brother tucked away somewhere." He met Kakarot's eyes meaningfully. "I came here to bring you back to them."

Kakarot shifted uneasily, sensing a fight, but Raditz just chuckled darkly.

"It's clear to me you wouldn't survive one day out there in the Frieza force. You're just as weak as I am and even more of a moron. And you," he added, turning to Gine, "you were never even supposed to be here. If I tried to take you back with me you'd be eaten alive."

"So then you'll stay?" Kakarot said hopefully, but Gine knew, with a sudden, horrible certainty, that that was not what Raditz had in mind.

"Of course not, idiot," Raditz said to his brother. "If I did that Vegeta would just come here himself, and then we'd all be dead."

"But you can't just go back," Gine said desperately. "I know the reputation of that family, Prince Vegeta is not going to be pleased if you return empty-handed. You have to stay here."

Raditz shook his head sadly.

"I'm not going to drag you into this," he said. "There's no point in all of us being slaughtered."

"You can't just go off to die!" Gine protested. "Not when I just found out you're alive!"

The smile Raditz gave her was wicked, and a little sad.

"Oh, I don't plan on dying. Not for real, anyway. But Vegeta won't bother trying to kill someone he thinks is dead."

He had always been a tricky little weasel, Gine suddenly remembered. Bardock had been a bit disgusted with him, but he had been the type of kid who would pretend to be beaten only to sneak attack his opponent once they turned their back on him. It hadn't won him any friends, but it had won him fights he would have lost in fair combat. If any Saiyan would do something like fake his own death to get out of a fight, it was Raditz.

"Don't you do anything stupid," she scolded, even as her heart constricted. "You've survived this long, don't do anything to mess that up."

Raditz scoffed, looking away in disgust.

"You don't know what you're talking about," he spat. "If I told you half the things I've done to survive you'd be so disgusted you'd kill me yourself."

He was trying to be flippant, but he just looked wretched. Gine, even though she knew better, even though she knew that to her son, born among Saiyans and then raised in who knows what hellish conditions, any gesture of comfort would be seen as confirmation of his weakness, still couldn't help stepping forward and placing her hands gently on her son's cheeks. His teeth bared at the touch, almost as though it hurt, but he didn't pull away or knock her down. She stroked her thumbs over his cheeks, trying to ease the expression of pain she found there, even if she could do nothing to ease the pain itself.

"It doesn't matter," she whispered. She could imagine some of what he was alluding to. Even in her brief time in the scouts there had been rituals, games played with helpless natives, cruelty that went beyond simple extermination. Even for a Saiyan, Frieza's way of doing things took some deadening of the conscience. "Whatever you've done, it doesn't matter to me. You're alive, and that's all I care about."

Perhaps if Raditz had been a different man, he might have shed tears. She could see the ghosts of them in the creases around his eyes, the shakiness of his breath. But he did not weep. Whatever he had been through, he was beyond weeping, and Gine knew that, later, she would weep enough tears for the both of them.

The scouter still in his grip, Raditz pulled her hands down from his cheeks and backed away. Then he replaced the scouter over his ear, turned, and was about to fly off when he angled his head over his shoulder and fixed Kakarot with a meaningful look. Whatever he was trying to communicate, Kakarot seemed to understand, because he nodded gravely. Raditz nodded back, gave Gine one last, sad look, and then leaped into the air and rocketed away. In mere seconds he was gone from view.

Instantly the screen door slammed open and the occupants of Kame House spilled out onto the beach, crowding around and demanding answers. Kakarot, grimly, began explaining, but all Gine could do was stare up at the sky, and try to hold back the tears, and hope.

Both her children were alive. But they might not be for long.


	12. Between Hope and a Hard Place

People crowded around Gine and Kakarot on the beach in front of Kame House, their collective voices raised in a thousand questions. Kakarot was trying to answer them all at once, but his explanations, as usual, only left them more confused. Gine sought out Grandpa Gohan's comforting, wrinkled face, and the noise fell away as it became clear his questions were the only ones she was going to answer.

"Who was that just now?" Gohan asked. Gine felt her whole body constrict as she fought the tears that sprang up at the very thought. Kakarot answered for her.

"That was my bro," he said proudly. His words caused another burst of noise from the assembled crowd.

"Your _what_?"

"Was he a Saiyan?"

"Where did he go?"

"What was he doing here?"

"You have a brother?" Krillin said in astonishment. He turned and looked at Gine, and she dashed away her tears. This was not the time for sentimentality.

"Yes, and he brought news," she said. She looked at Gohan as she spoke. "We are not the only Saiyans left."

"That's great!" Yamcha exclaimed. "How many survivors are there?"

"He only mentioned the two," Gine said, her blood turning cold as she realized there might be more; Raditz hadn't made it clear. "And it's not great. It's terrible."

There was a pause as everyone's tentative smiles began fading.

"I would have thought you'd be happy more of you survived," Roshi said, puzzled. Gine shook her head slowly.

"Not these two. Nappa— I think I remember that name. Raditz said he's an elite, and if he's who I'm thinking of he's the Prince's right hand man. He'll do anything he says."

"A prince?" Bulma said with interest, and Gine gave her a sharp look.

"He's no knight in shining armor, Bulma. He and his line were the most vicious, powerful Saiyans of all, which was why they were in charge."

"Is he coming here?" Krillin asked, face white. Gine's tail lashed behind her in sharp, jerky motions.

"I don't know," she said, beginning to pace. "Raditz was going to fake his own death but I don't know if that will be enough to draw them away. When the royal family wants something they get it, and the Prince won't be happy about being defied like that."

"But what does he want?" Tien asked, and Gine looked at her son.

"Kakarot," she said, and Kakarot regarded her solemnly. He looked more like his father when he wasn't smiling. She hadn't thought of Bardock in years, and she didn't want to be thinking of him now. "And me, probably, now that they know I'm here."

"What would they want Kakarot for?" Yamcha scoffed.

"To help them do their dirty work," Gine said, feeling her fists clench of their own accord.

"Well, we can just tell them no thank you," Krillin said. "And if they get rude, Kakarot can show them the door. Although it does seem like a shame your own brother has to run away from these guys. I would've liked to meet him."

Gine stared at Krillin, his little hands on his hips in a cocky stance as he looked up at Kakarot in perfect faith. Somehow she had forgotten that none of them understood how weak she was. Again her eyes found Gohan's, which were calm. He was waiting for her.

"That isn't going to work, Krillin," she said. He only looked puzzled, still secure in his faith in them. Gine breathed in deep and then let it out slowly. "I know all of you think I'm strong, but the truth is I'm the weakest of my kind. If those two Saiyans really are coming here, then we don't stand a chance."

"Come on," Yamcha scoffed uneasily. "You're joking, right? You and Kakarot are crazy strong. You even trained with _Kami_. What do these guys have on you?"

It was no use. They all thought too much of her. Gine looked one by one at all the faces around her- Yamcha, Puar, Krillin, Tien, Chiaotzu. Launch and Bulma and Grandpa Gohan. Roshi and Oolong and Turtle. Even Kakarot and Little Gohan- they were all looking at her with hope in their eyes, and she couldn't bear it.

"Why won't you get it through your thick heads?" she shouted, startling them all. "If those two make planetfall we are _dead_. And we don't even know if they're coming or not."

"We can ask Kami about that," Kakarot piped up, looking at her over Little Gohan's head. "He'll know."

Gine began to argue, but found she had no argument to make. Why _wouldn't_ Kami be able to tell if two aliens across the galaxy had murderous intent towards the Earth? It would hardly be the strangest thing she'd ever seen.

"Fine," she said. "We'll go ask him."

The truth was, she admitted to herself as Kakarot handed Gohan to Krillin and they flew away, she was hoping Kami would tell them she was worried over nothing. That Raditz's plan would work, that Nappa and Vegeta had no interest in Kakarot or herself, that they were safe. But when the old Namekian's eyes opened after contemplating the matter for some minutes, she knew that was not what he was going to tell her.

"There are two powerful energies headed for Earth as we speak," he said gravely. "At their current speed I estimate it will take them a year to get here. And they aren't just powerful: they mean the people of Earth great harm. I'm afraid you are right, Gine."

"All right," Kakarot said eagerly. "When do we start training?"

Kami regarded him with a sad smile.

"You aren't. I have nothing left to teach you."

Gine felt her throat constrict. "What do you mean?"

"You are both far beyond my power now. I have passed on what wisdom I have, and it is up to you to act on it. There is nothing more I can do for you. I'm sorry."

And he really looked it. But, despite more arguing from Kakarot, that was the last word on the subject. Gine and Kakarot descended from the Lookout in grim silence. At first she thought he'd finally come to understand the threat, but halfway there he broke the silence to say,

"Welp, looks like we've got to train on our own."

And of course he sounded excited about it. Gine nearly clobbered him right there in midair, but she made a heroic effort and refrained. When they arrived back at Kame House and relayed the news, everyone went solemn, but still retained the same optimism as Kakarot. It was infuriating, and after a few half-hearted attempts by Krillin and Bulma to come up with a plan that didn't involve relying on Kakarot and Gine to save the day, she stood and addressed Tien.

"I believe you've been wanting to have a match with me."

Tien blinked all three eyes at her, his eagerness warring with his practicality.

"I, ah, that is, yes, but this hardly seems like the time."

Gine craned her neck to the side, cracking it, then tilted it over to the other side.

"On the contrary," she said. "This is the perfect time."

To his credit Tien held his ground.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but we have more important things to worry about right now."

Gine gave him a plastic smile. "Trust me, this will only take a second."

Tien didn't have an ounce of bluster in him, but even he would not allow a jab at his pride like that to stand. His face darkened, and he stood.

The two of them went outside, facing each other on the beach, and Gine could feel Tien using all his faculties to feel her out. He was looking for openings, gaps in her stance or her attention to exploit, and she dropped her guard entirely, not only to deliberately give him an opening, but also to teach him a lesson about facing opponents who were inferior in skill but overwhelming in power. To someone like Tien, used to fighting opponents who had spent years honing their skills under the tutelage of a master, Prince Vegeta would not read like a skillful opponent. That apparent lack of skill would cause him to rush in, as he was doing now, and get a nasty surprise, as Gine was about to give him. At least Gine's surprise wouldn't cost him his life.

Tien blew past the place where Gine's defenses should have been, his fingers extended and aiming at chakra points. He jabbed her solar plexus, throat, and forehead several times in quick succession, then danced behind her and elbowed her in the small of her back. All to no avail. She stood, not yielding even an inch, arms lightly folded across her stomach as though she were waiting in line at the grocery store. When he appeared in front of her, breathing hard with exertion, his eyes were wide in astonishment.

"M-my attacks did nothing?"

She regarded him calmly. "Would you like to try again?"

He growled and dashed forward, even faster this time, hitting joints and soft spots, pelting her with blows that had every ounce of his strength in them— with exactly the same result. Gine smoothed the front of her dress where some of his hits had wrinkled the fabric, and then glanced up at him, sighing. He was starting to understand. Now to drive the point home.

With a growl that began deep in her chest, Gine called on the reserves of energy swirling in her core, pulling them up and amplifying them. Like a geyser, the power rose in time with her increasing yell, shooting up and out until the wind was blowing at hurricane speeds around her. The ground shook, and the laconic ocean waves grew erratic and agitated. Tien was driven to his knees, one arm thrown over his eyes as sand whipped everywhere. When her power had reached its full height, Gine let it drop, everything falling to eerie silence after the furious noise of wind and water and earth being whipped into unnatural frenzy.

Tien wasted no time being overawed, and as soon as the pressure of her energy let up, he burst to his feet, ready to resume his attack. He lunged at her again, fist clenched and aiming to kill. At least he'd understood that much. But with one hand she grabbed his fist and twisted it 180 degrees, taking him along with it. Tien slammed into the sand on his back, gasping painfully as the wind was knocked out of him. Gine stood over him, balancing her foot lightly but insistently on his neck. After a moment, Tien lay back in the sand, defeated.

"When I came here I was the weakest Saiyan that had ever lived," she told him, knowing that everyone else had crept out onto the porch and was listening. "Even now my power would make me a solid low-class Saiyan, good for nothing more than routine dirty work. The Saiyans coming here are ten times more powerful than this. Do I make myself clear?"

She removed her foot, ready to help Tien up. But she had not made herself clear, it seemed, because as soon as she extended her hand he grabbed it, obviously intending to pull her off-balance and continue the fight. Faster than Tien could probably see, she twisted in midair and brought her elbow down on his stomach. Tien's eyes rolled back into his head and his mouth gaped wide, spittle flying as he wheezed a painful breath. Launch flung herself off the porch and slid to a stop next to him, cradling his head and calling his name, but he was already unconscious.

"Ya didn't have to go that far!" she shouted up at Gine, who was brushing sand from her dress.

"The Saiyans coming here are ten times more powerful than me," she repeated, her voice calm but her mind in turmoil. She wanted to make them understand, but what favor was she really doing them? Knowing what was coming, instead of it being a surprise— was that kindness? "But they are a million times more cruel. Saiyans have no concept of honor or mercy. They—" Her voice broke, but she forced herself to go on. "They slaughtered entire worlds for profit and fun. Every Saiyan I knew had the blood of _billions_ of beings on their hands. And they were _proud_ of it. _That_ is what's coming here. _That_ is what we have to face. _Now_ do you understand?!"

No one answered her. She couldn't stand to look at them, all shuffling in place and silent, so when Kakarot spoke, it came as a surprise.

"You—" He looked confused, hurt. "You said Saiyans were warriors." His tone was accusatory, pleading, asking her to take it back, deny it, let the world be as it had been before. She had never told him, she realized. Grandpa Gohan had known, but somehow it had never come up around Kakarot. She had never told him much about her people, and he had rarely asked. But somehow she had expected that one basic truth— that Saiyans were bloodthirsty brutes— to be transmitted anyway.

And it hadn't.

"Warriors, yes," she said. "But not good. Not kind. Not a single one of them."

His harrowed expression was a weight on her heart. She hadn't meant to deceive him. She just hadn't wanted to remember.

Tien groaned at her feet, and she stepped away from him, glad to have somewhere else to look. Before she could do anything else, however, she heard Kami's voice speaking in her head.

 _Greetings. Can you hear me?_

The shocked reaction of the crowd on the beach told Gine she wasn't the only one he was speaking to. Aloud, she answered.

"Yes, we hear you Kami. What is it?"

 _I've been speaking with my superiors and I believe I may have a way to help you after all._

"God has _superiors_?" Gine heard Bulma mutter in amazement. Kami went on.

 _There is a martial arts master in Otherworld who is familiar with Saiyans and the threat they pose. He has agreed to give special dispensation for one mortal to train with him._

Gine's mind raced, hope blooming in her chest for the first time since Raditz had given them the news. She heard Roshi saying,

"Who is this master? Is he someone we know?"

 _No_ , Kami answered. _He is the Lord of Worlds, known as King Kai, and he has agreed to help us face this threat. Whichever person you choose to receive the training will need to come to me, and quickly. We do not have much time, and the way to King Kai is long and arduous. The Lord of the Dead has agreed to allow a living mortal to pass into his realm, but he is not patient, and he may overturn his decision if he is kept waiting._

"The Lord of the Dead!" Bulma cried in horror.

"So whoever does the training's gotta die?!" Oolong squealed.

"He said a _living_ mortal, dumbass," Launch snapped.

"Which one of us should it be?" Kakarot asked, and everyone turned to him, dumbfounded.

"I think that much is obvious," Tien croaked, getting laboriously to his feet. He waved off Launch's attentions and stood gingerly. "You're the one to go, Kakarot."

"Me?" Kakarot repeated dumbly. "But what about you, ma? Don't you wanna go?" He turned to her, his earlier dismay seemingly forgotten. She smiled, despite everything, and shook her head.

"I don't. It really should be you, son."

His frown did not lift.

"But I wanted to train with you," he said forlornly. Gine cupped her son's cheek in one hand, memorizing his face as she realized she wouldn't be seeing it again for a year.

"You need to be ready to protect your home, Kakarot," she said. "Besides, I'll be training the others while you're gone."

The fighters in the group blossomed at this, their hope rising higher than Gine's. She was less certain of their doom than she had been a minute ago, but the thought of coming face to face with the Prince left her cold with dread.

Kakarot was still hesitating, and she pushed him gently away.

"Go," she said. He took a long look at her, slowly handed her Little Gohan, and then hugged her, swiftly but tightly. Then he was gone, and the beach, though still crowded, felt empty.


	13. Convincing Chi Chi

"No!" Chi Chi shouted, unfolding a bedsheet with a snap so hard the sheet tore in half. In her rage she didn't notice and tucked it on the bed anyway. "Absolutely not! Bad enough I'm expected to put up four layabouts on top of all the other work I do around here, but now ya wanna take Gohan away and turn him into a meathead like his father?"

Gine followed her daughter-in-law helplessly around the brand new capsule house as she prepared it to receive guests: making beds and airing out rooms, setting electronics and engaging the temporary foundations. Thank the gods Bulma handed out capsules like candy; if Chi Chi had been asked to accommodate four fighters in her _own_ house she might have imploded.

"I don't want to take him away," Gine said calmly as Chi Chi fluffed a pillow and scattered feathers around the room. "I want you to come with us."

Chi Chi threw a comforter over the bed, moving on to the next one before it had even landed. As Gine watched it settled into place seemingly on its own, corners draping themselves elegantly as they fell. "And do what?" Chi Chi demanded as she made hospital corners on the next bed. "Do laundry in the river while the rest of you teach Gohan how to be a delinquent?"

Gine sighed. She knew perfectly well Chi Chi was angry Kakarot had left without saying goodbye, scared the Earth might be destroyed, and worried for her son. This was simply how she coped: trying to control what little she could and ignoring the rest. Often, it worked. She managed Kakarot a lot better than Gine ever had. But this time she wished the girl would just be reasonable.

"Chi Chi, I'm asking you to come with him so he _can_ keep studying."

It was enough to halt Chi Chi's mad rush around the house for a second or two, but only that.

"He can study here. He doesn't need to go out in the woods and learn how to punch people."

"Chi Chi, _you_ were a martial artist," Gine pointed out, exasperated. "You punched people all the time."

"I _was_ ," Chi Chi said, pulling out another storage capsule and unpopping it. Inside were several trunks full of old quilts and sheets, as well as baby clothes and knickknacks, which she sorted through impatiently. "But I don't want Gohan to grow up like his father. You did your best with him, but Gohan has potential, and I won't see it wasted!"

This line of attack was going nowhere. Gine had to try the other thing. She hadn't planned on bringing it up until the issue of Gohan was settled, but it seemed that was not to be.

"Didn't you _like_ being a martial artist?" she asked. She was pretty sure she knew the answer, but if she was wrong she might have to do something drastic.

"Yes, of course," Chi Chi snapped without looking up from the box of trinkets she was sorting through, but then her words caught up with her and she stopped. Her eyes went distant, and she rubbed the object in her hands thoughtfully. Gine craned her head, and saw that it was the envelope that had held the prize money from the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai. She smiled. She was right. Chi Chi came to herself and glared.

"What's that got to do with anything?" She stuffed the envelope back into the album she had taken it from and recapsulized everything, minus the bedclothes, which she began unfolding. Gine took up a sheet and worked on one of the other beds.

"Well, why did you stop?" she asked, tugging at the corners until they were straight.

"What was the point? Trainin' takes up too much time. Just seeing to Gohan's studies is a full time job, and then there's cooking and cleaning for everyone, and keeping Kakarot in line is— Well, you know how that is."

Gine knew how that was.

"But what if you did have time?" she pressed. "What if you didn't have to worry about all that? Would you _want_ to keep training?"

Chi Chi gave an exasperated sigh.

"Of course I liked sparrin' with Kakarot back when we were kids. But we're not kids anymore, and I'm not going to let Gohan grow up thinkin' he can solve all his problems with violence."

Gine dropped the pillow she was trying to stuff into its pillowcase and fixed her daughter-in-law with a stern look.

"Some problems can only be solved with violence," she said firmly. "And this is one of them."

"And I'm doin' my part," Chi Chi retorted. "You see me, puttin' up accomodations for Kakarot's delinquent friends without a word of complaint because I know they need some place to train. But I don't see why you want to drag Gohan into all this."

"He's going to get dragged into it whether we want it or not." Gine saw Chi Chi bite her lip as she bent over to smooth out some wrinkles on the bed. "Those two Saiyans are going to be very curious about a species that can interbreed with Saiyans. I've certainly never heard of such a thing before. And they're going to want to know how strong he is. If we can't stop them they're going to come after him."

"If you can't stop them then what chance does he have anyway?" Chi Chi wailed, throwing up her hands. "He's four!"

"When I was four my mother kicked me out of the house." Gine returned Chi Chi's horrified look with a wry smile. "Don't look like that. We didn't like each other and I was perfectly capable of fending for myself. I would have left soon anyway if she hadn't forced the issue."

"Well, that's all fine and good for you Saiyans," Chi Chi huffed, turning back to her task. "But Gohan's human, and it's not normal for a four year old human to be doing anything but stayin' at home with his mother."

"Gohan's _not_ human," Gine said. "Not entirely. He has potential, Chi Chi. You can see it in his mind, but I can see it in his body. He's strong, I know he is. And he's clever. Those two things together will make him a force to be reckoned with."

At the mention of training Gohan again, Chi Chi grunted in annoyance and left the room, moving to the bathroom to stock it with linens and toiletries. Gine followed slowly, at her wits end with this girl who called her 'ma'.

Her own mother had been cold and perpetually disappointed, and Gine had never known Chi Chi as a child, so sometimes she found herself totally unable to figure out how she was supposed to relate to her. She was a daughter, but not her child. She was a friend, but also family. And sometimes, every so often, her stubbornness would become an impenetrable wall. As a Saiyan, Gine's natural reaction to a wall she needed to get past was to smash it. As an Earthling, she needed to try something different.

"Chi Chi, dear," she said softly, leaning a hand on the doorway as Chi Chi slammed bottles into baskets and baskets into cupboards, "I want you and Gohan _there_ with us. I don't want to be without my family for a whole year."

Chi Chi stopped, leaning a pink plastic bucket full of shampoo and conditioner bottles against the edge of the sink and staring at herself in the mirror.

"They're a bunch of boorish louts with no manners or sense, and I don't want them teaching Gohan to be like them," she said, but she was no longer shouting. Gine gave her another gentle push.

" _You'll_ be teaching him, dear." Gine hid a smile as Chi Chi whipped her head around. "And I'll be teaching you. I want _both_ of you to train with us. You have potential too, you know."

"I'm not— I can't _train_ with— I'm too far behind!"

Chi Chi looked away from her own reflection and down at herself, tugging at the sash around her waist pensively. Gine let her think. Chi Chi worried her lower lip between her teeth for a long time.

"I'm too far behind," she said again, and Gine knew she had won.

"I don't know who you think you're talking to," she said brightly, taking the basket of shampoos from her daughter's hands, "but I know a thing or two about being behind. That won't be a problem. And I don't know what you're thinking, stocking this much shampoo for three baldies."

Gine saw Chi Chi mouth the names 'Tien,' 'Chiaotzu,' and 'Krillin,' and then laugh.

"Yamcha has enough hair for all of them," she said, taking the basket back. "And these are nearly expired, they need to be used up."

Humming, Chi Chi stocked the rest of the bathroom quickly, but without the violence in her motion of just moments ago, and when she was done she breezed past Gine and stood in the living room, surveying her work with a pleased air.

"Well, that's that. When did you say they were coming, again?"

"They should be here in a few hours," Gine said, glancing at a wall clock. Chi Chi's hands flew to her face.

"Goodness gracious, I thought I had more time. I need to get lunch started, and check on Gohan's math assignment, and Gramps said he's running low on ointment—"

Gine put her arm around Chi Chi's shoulders and led her to the door, smiling. "Let me help you."


	14. Training and Techniques

"We need to get Chi Chi flying," Yamcha said during the midday break. He, Gine, Tien, Krillin and Chiaotzu were sitting on the lush grass at the edge of a meadow a few mountains over from Mt. Paozu where they had set up camp. The five of them were ranged in a semi circle under tree cover, cooling off after a morning of exertion. Chi Chi was nearby, drilling Gohan in science terms with flashcards while the boy ate lunch.

Yamcha was right, of course, but Gine didn't know why he was bringing it up now. They were all painfully aware that Chi Chi was the only one who hadn't mastered buku-jutsu, Chi Chi most of all.

"We've all tried explaining it to her," Tien said, echoing Gine's thoughts. "All we can do now is hope she figures it out on her own."

"That's what I'm getting at," Yamcha countered. "We _haven't_ all tried." He looked directly at Gine. "You've been flying since you were a kid. How come you never give her any advice?"

Gine stared back at him, nonplussed.

"My mother threw me off a cliff when I was three," she said. "I have no advice to give."

They stared at her in horror. Krillin was the first to break the awkward silence by clearing his throat.

"O-Okay, but you must have taught Kakarot how to fly. You— you didn't throw _him_ off a cliff, did you?" he added, gulping. Gine chuckled drily.

"I never taught Kakarot how to fly," she said, watching Gohan triumphantly shout an answer and accidentally spray Chi Chi with crumbs. "He picked it up on his own. Like most Saiyan children."

There was another, longer awkward silence. Not for the first time, Gine wished Grandpa Gohan had agreed to train with them. She had asked him to, the night before their training officially started, but he had only looked thoughtfully at the fighters assembled in the yard and told her there was nothing he could teach them that they couldn't teach each other. Gine still wasn't sure what she could offer anyone other than a challenging sparring partner, but Tien and Chiaotzu had been able to teach the Kame school students how to fly and they in turn had shown Chi Chi that farm chores could also be training. Chi Chi had been ecstatic, and Mt. Paozu was now the proud owner of a very productive field of radishes, with fields of carrots and spring onions well on their way.

Chi Chi switched to math, and Gine asked the others in a whisper,

"What _is_ the quadratic equation, anyway?"

Tien, Chiaotzu and Yamcha all shrugged in unison, but Krillin straightened up and began to recite.

"A squared plus b squared equals c squared," he said proudly. His audience ooh'd appreciatively.

"How do you know that?" Gine asked in awe.

"Master Roshi always said we should train our minds as well as our bodies," he said.

"So what is it for?" she asked, and his proud grin faltered.

"Stop changing the subject," he said, frowning at her. "We need to get Chi Chi up to speed or she might decide this is a waste of time and take Gohan home with her."

That wasn't likely, in Gine's mind at least, but Chi Chi's lack of progress _was_ a problem. The girl, as demure and sweet as she liked to appear, was a brawler born and bred. Using ki to add strength and fortitude to her own body came as natural as breathing, but focusing the raw destructive power of ki energy in her palm or using it to fly were seemingly beyond her. In six months she hadn't been able to do more than heat up her hands, even though her speed and strength were increasing day by day. Gine didn't think she would actually pick up and leave if she didn't get it soon, but she might give up on ki control as not worth her time. When Chi Chi got frustrated she tended to blame anything but herself.

"The problem is she tries too hard," Yamcha mused out loud.

"And thinks too much," Tien agreed.

"But how do we get her to stop thinking?" Chiaotzu wondered.

They pondered the question in silence for the rest of the break, but made no headway. As they performed their pre-training stretches, Yamcha mused out loud,

"Hey, Chi Chi, whatever happened to that helmet you used to have?"

Chi Chi straightened out of a deep lunge to stare at him.

"What helmet?"

Yamcha looked up from his hurdler's stretch in surprise.

"You know, that helmet with the blade on top you used to wear. You had it on it when we first met."

Chi Chi gasped, then put her hands on her hips and regarded him sternly.

"Yamcha, I'm surprised at you!" she exclaimed. "And you with a girlfriend no less."

Yamcha looked bewildered. "What are you talking about?"

Chi Chi tsk'd and shook her head.

"I know you had feelings for me back then, but I couldn't return them, and I thought we'd both moved on."

Yamcha shrunk under the sudden scrutiny of five sets of eyes.

"I didn't— I wasn't— you— I was just wondering what you did with it, that's all!"

He leaned over his other leg, cheeks flaming.

"Well, if that's all it is," Chi Chi said primly, resuming her lunges. "I put it away as soon as I got engaged to Kakarot. It was too childish for a young lady about to be married."

"I wouldn't call taking out a dinosaur in one go 'childish'," Yamcha muttered. Krillin heard, and turned to Chi Chi with raised eyebrows.

"You took out a dinosaur with a helmet? What did you do, head butt it?"

"I did no such thing!" Chi Chi exclaimed. "The blade came off, like this—"

She put her arms over her head, palms together. Between her hands energy began to glow in the shape of a scythe, unbeknownst to her and to the breathless anticipation of everyone else. Closing her eyes, she flung the energy scythe forward, sending it whistling through the air straight at Yamcha. He barely managed to fling himself out of the way in time, a sizeable chunk of his hair being not so lucky. The blade arced around in a large curve, mowing down several trees before returning to Chi Chi's head.

Gohan's eyes were wide. "Wow, mom, that was amazing!"

Chi Chi opened her eyes, blushing, and the energy dissipated. "There's nothing amazing about playing pretend, Gohan. Now finish your stretches, young man, you don't want to cramp up."

"Chi Chi!" Krillin spluttered. "Do you know what you just did?"

"You mean besides making a fool of myself reminiscing?" Chi Chi snapped.

"You just performed an energy attack," Tien informed her. "A powerful one."

"What are you talking about?" Chi Chi demanded, but then she caught sight of Yamcha, who was pulling at his ruined ponytail in dismay, and the massacred trees behind him. Her eyes went wide. "Was... that me?"

She looked down at her hands in amazement, and then back up at the carnage she had wrought. Slowly she put her palms together over her head again, but no energy appeared between them, and she scowled.

Gine smiled. The girl would get it soon enough. She wasn't Kakarot's wife for nothing, after all.


	15. Gine and Gohan II

Gine's boots shushed softly against the leaf litter of the forest floor, Little Gohan clambering more noisily behind her. He struggled over a fallen tree, fell, and ran to catch up, clutching for her hand and then settling for the hem of her dress when she did not lower it for him. Gine had told Chi Chi they were going for a walk, but what the girl didn't know couldn't hurt her.

It was time for Gohan's first hunt. A pure-blooded Saiyan child his age would have already been playing pounce games with his parents' tails for years and probably have managed to catch a few lizards, but despite the tail waving behind him, Gohan didn't seem to have an ounce of killer instinct in his body.

"Wow, Grandma, look!" Gohan exclaimed, tugging at her dress and pointing. "A metasequoia glyptostroboides. They're rare in this area. And there's a Chrysolophus pictus roosting in it! Oh, look, a Physignathus cocincinus! It just went behind that bush! Did you see it?"

Put simply, Gine thought, as she stared at the bird in a tree and listened to the lizard scuttling into cover, the boy was an incorrigible egghead. He was strong and growing stronger every day, he knew every kata of both the Turtle School and the Crane School by heart, had learned how to fly in a day and was able to meditate like someone three times his age, but if Bardock had been ashamed of Raditz for being wily, she didn't know _what_ he'd make of his grandson.

"Gohan," she said, kneeling down to look him in the eye. "Do you know why we're out here?"

Gohan blinked. "A nature walk?" he ventured. Gine shook her head.

"We're here to hunt," she told him. His sweet little face went serious as he thought about this.

"You mean me, don't you?" he said, tucking his chin onto his chest. At least those brains worked both ways. Bulma was smart too, but she could be oblivious when it came to matters of common sense. Gine nodded.

"I'll show you the basics, but then it'll be up to you. You ready?"

She stood, but Gohan tugged at her dress again.

"Not an endangered species," he said firmly, and she smiled.

After a few brief lessons in stalking, wind direction, and camouflage, Gine dropped behind Gohan and let him lead the way. She could already tell there was a herd of deer up the mountain to the east, but if Gohan couldn't even find his prey then there was no point in teaching him how to kill it. Sure enough, he walked in the opposite direction of the deer, and Gine reminded herself that failure was as good a teacher as success.

To her surprise, though, in just a few minutes they were crouched at the edge of a slight clearing where an enormous tree had spread its branches, a flock of small birds roosting in its roots.

"Arborophila rufogularis," Gohan whispered. Gine nodded. The clearing would make it difficult to get very close, but these birds tended to run rather than fly. All in all, not bad for a first attempt. She watched as Gohan closed his eyes, and felt as he settled his energy to be as inconspicuous as possible. Probably not necessary with fowl, but it couldn't hurt. Opening his eyes, he crept around the edge of the clearing until he was hidden in a vast fern. From her vantage point, Gine could barely see him, and the birds remained unconcerned.

Without warning, a rock sailed out of the fern into the middle of the flock, its angle making it seem to the birds as though it had come from another direction, and they ran from it—straight into Gohan's hiding place. After a confusion of feathers and squawking, Gohan leaped out of the fern with a triumphant yell, the neck of a struggling bird held tightly in his hand.

"I got one, Grandma! I got one!"

She stood slowly in amazement. Gohan ran to her, grinning, and thrust the bird forward to show her.

"Did you see? I caught it! Did you see me?"

"That was incredible, Gohan," Gine said, beginning to grin herself. Even Kakarot hadn't gotten a kill on his first try. Brains guiding brawn was a force to be reckoned with indeed. Maybe she'd been worried over nothing.

"Here," Gohan said, holding the bird out for her to take, and Gine's smile slid off her face. She did not move. Gohan held it out a few inches farther. "For you," he said.

"What am I supposed to do with it?" she said, and the smile slid off his face as well. He looked at the still struggling bird, and then back at her, holding it out again.

"I got it," he said. "I did it."

"You're not finished."

The boy gaped at her, his mind refusing to comprehend what she wanted.

"But… You mean… _I_ should carry it home?" He looked up at her hopefully, and she shook her head.

"Not like that you shouldn't."

Gohan looked down at the bird once more, then up at her, and Gine made two fists in the air, twisting them sharply in opposite directions. Instantly Gohan's face went white, and he must have loosened his grip, because the bird gave a loud whistle and flapped its wings until it was free, running away as fast as its little legs could carry it. Neither Gohan nor Gine watched it go. Gohan was staring at his grandmother, lower lip trembling.

"I… I don't wanna," he hiccupped, and Gine looked at his sweet, miserable little face and wondered what else she had been expecting.

"Okay," she said simply, and turned around, heading back down the mountain toward camp. Gohan clambered after her, and this time, when he reached for her hand, she let him take it.

For the rest of the day Gine thought long and hard about Kakarot's early hunting experiences (games he delighted to master), and her own (matters of survival), but found nothing to guide her on how to help her grandson overcome this hurdle— or even if she should.

But that evening she caught Gohan looking thoughtfully at the roast duck Yamcha had bagged by accident while practicing his Spirit Ball technique. She watched him look from Yamcha, who was joking with Krillin, to Chi Chi, who had plucked and dressed it, and then down at his plate more than once before the meal was through, and she thought maybe she could let him decide.

Early the next day Gohan grabbed Gine's hand and led her into the forest, not letting go until they'd been walking for nearly half an hour. He dropped into a crouch and in a few seconds was out of sight. Gine was pretty sure he was stalking a rabbit, much quicker and more alert prey than roosting birds, so she was unsurprised when he reemerged a few minutes later frustrated and empty-handed. He led her through the forest for a few more minutes before spotting something else, only to return with nothing to show for it once more.

After a few rounds of this he finally bagged another bird, a large flightless thing he didn't tell her the scientific name of. It struggled and squawked, but he gripped it tightly, asking her a question with his eyes.

"Hold it here and here," she told him, and he did. "Twist like this as hard as you can, as fast as you can. You don't want it to suffer."

He nodded, took a few quick breaths, then squeezed his eyes shut and wrung his hands. There was a snap, and the bird fell limp.

"Very good," Gine murmured, and Gohan opened his eyes, looking down at the bird in his hands like he expected it to scold him. When it did nothing but hang there, he blinked a few times, and then looked up at Gine. He seemed almost surprised. The important thing, to Gine at least, was that he did not cry. "A good kill," she said. "Your mother will make it into a tasty dish."

"Yeah," Gohan agreed thoughtfully, and together they descended the mountain. When they were nearly in sight of the camp, Gohan turned to her and held out the dead bird. "You take it," he said. "I don't think mom would like it if she knew I killed it."

Gine hesitated. The boy was probably right. Chi Chi would faint dead away if she knew her baby had been out wringing the necks of the local wildlife.

It was just, she thought, taking the bird, that a Saiyan's first kill ought to be celebrated. It was the first tangible sign that you were worth something, that you weren't just an empty mouth but a member of society. A _person_. It was an occasion for boasting, for dancing, and teasing from adults who, just the day before, had treated you as though you didn't exist. A Saiyan's first kill was a _good_ thing.

This was all true, and so Gine did not know, as she watched Gohan go up to his mother and hug her, why she felt like crying.


End file.
